1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
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12 * New modules (see the manual for details)
14 ** The `(ice-9 i18n)' module provides internationalization support
16 * Changes to the distribution
18 ** Guile now uses Gnulib as a portability aid
20 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
21 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
23 ** A new 'memoize-symbol evaluator trap has been added. This trap can
24 be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code coverage.
26 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
27 This slightly improves program startup times.
29 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
30 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
32 * Changes to the C interface
34 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
35 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
39 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
43 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
44 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
46 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
47 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
49 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
50 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
51 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
53 * Changes to the distribution
57 We've started collecting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and will
58 distribute these (with answers!) in future Guile releases.
61 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
65 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
66 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
67 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
68 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
69 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
70 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
71 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
72 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
73 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
74 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
75 system and library calls.
76 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
77 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
78 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
79 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
80 uniform vectors on AIX.
81 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
82 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
83 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
84 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
85 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
87 * New modules (see the manual for details)
91 * Documentation fixes and improvements
93 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
95 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
96 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
98 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
100 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
102 * Changes to the distribution
104 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
106 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
107 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
108 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
110 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
112 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
115 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
117 * New modules (see the manual for details)
124 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
125 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
126 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
127 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
128 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
129 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
130 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
132 * Implementation improvements
134 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
135 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
139 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
141 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
143 ** set-program-arguments
148 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
149 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
150 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
151 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
152 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
153 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
155 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
156 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
157 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
158 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
159 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
160 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
161 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
162 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
163 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
164 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
165 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
166 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
167 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
168 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
169 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
170 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
173 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
175 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
177 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
179 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
180 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
181 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
182 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
183 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
184 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
190 * New `(ice-9 i18n)' module (see the manual for details)
194 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
196 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
198 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
200 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
202 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
204 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
206 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
207 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
208 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
210 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
212 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
214 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
215 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
217 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
219 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
220 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
222 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
224 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
226 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
228 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
230 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
232 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
234 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
236 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
238 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
240 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
241 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
242 file was on a different device.
245 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
247 * Changes to the distribution
249 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
251 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
253 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
255 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
257 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
259 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
262 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
264 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
265 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
266 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
267 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
268 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
269 items like the versioned share directory name
270 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
272 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
273 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
274 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
275 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
276 with each micro release during a stable series.
278 ** Thread implementation has changed.
280 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
281 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
282 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
283 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
284 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
287 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
288 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
289 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
290 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
293 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
294 in which case "null" threads are used.
296 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
297 "Blocking", and others.
299 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
301 This is a milder form of deprecation.
303 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
304 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
305 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
306 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
307 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
309 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
310 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
312 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
314 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
315 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
317 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
320 This SRFI is always available.
322 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
324 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
325 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
326 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
327 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
330 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
332 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
333 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
334 parameters without currying.
336 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
338 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
339 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
341 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
342 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
345 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
346 with a renaming import, for example.
348 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
350 The official version is good enough now.
352 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
354 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
355 provided. Use 'make html'.
357 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
359 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
360 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
361 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
362 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
364 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
366 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
369 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
371 ** New command line option `-L'.
373 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
375 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
377 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
378 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
380 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
382 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
383 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
385 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
387 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
388 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
391 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
394 (define-module (demo)
398 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
401 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
403 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
405 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
406 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
407 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
409 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
411 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
412 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
414 ** New function hashx-remove!
416 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
418 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
419 barriers and dynamic states.
421 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
422 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
423 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
426 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
427 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
428 Barriers" in the manual.
430 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
431 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
433 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
435 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
436 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
437 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
440 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
442 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
443 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
445 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
446 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
447 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
449 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
450 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
452 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
453 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
454 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
456 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
457 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
458 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
461 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
462 substrings and read-only strings.
464 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
465 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
468 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
470 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
479 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
480 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
481 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
483 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
484 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
485 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
488 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
489 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
492 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
494 See the manual for details.
496 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
498 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
501 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
503 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
504 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
505 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
506 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
508 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
509 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
510 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
513 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
515 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
516 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
527 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
531 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
536 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
540 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
544 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
547 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
548 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
549 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
550 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
552 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
553 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
556 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
559 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
563 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
565 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
566 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
567 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
570 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
573 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
575 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
578 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
579 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
587 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
588 has been detected is to
590 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
591 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
592 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
595 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
598 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
600 to your .guile init file.
602 ** New define-module option: :replace
604 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
607 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
608 for the core binding `format'.
610 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
612 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
613 a prefix to all imported bindings.
616 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
618 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
621 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
623 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
624 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
625 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
627 ** New function: effective-version
629 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
630 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
631 to the distribution" above.
633 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
635 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
636 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
638 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
640 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
641 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
643 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
645 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
646 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
649 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
651 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
653 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
655 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
656 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
657 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
660 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
661 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
662 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
665 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
666 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
668 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
669 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
670 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
673 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
675 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
676 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
679 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
680 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
682 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
683 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
684 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
685 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
686 level for the current thread.
688 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
690 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
692 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
693 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
696 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
698 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
700 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
703 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
705 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
708 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
709 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
710 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
712 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
713 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
714 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
715 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
726 ERROR: Numerical overflow
728 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
731 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
733 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
734 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
735 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
746 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
748 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
749 them is also done exactly, of course:
754 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
757 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
758 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
760 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
762 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
763 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
764 equal to a floating point number. For example:
766 (inexact->exact 1.234)
767 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
769 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
771 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
774 ** New function 'rationalize'.
776 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
777 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
779 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
782 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
783 result when both its arguments are exact.
785 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
787 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
788 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
789 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
791 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
793 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
794 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
795 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
797 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
800 ** pretty-print has more options.
802 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
803 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
804 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
806 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
808 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
809 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
810 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
812 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
814 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
815 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
817 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
819 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
820 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
823 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
825 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
826 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
827 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
828 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
829 without the soft port blocking.
831 ** Deprecated: undefine
833 There is no replacement for undefine.
835 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
836 have been discouraged.
838 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
839 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
840 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
843 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
845 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
847 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
848 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
849 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
850 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
853 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
854 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
855 be removed in the next major Guile release.
857 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
859 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
860 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
861 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
862 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
863 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
864 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
866 * Changes to the C interface
868 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
869 take a 'delete' function argument.
871 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
872 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
874 This is an incompatible change.
876 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
878 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
879 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
880 --disable-deprecated.
882 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
884 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
885 Scheme values has been added.
887 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
888 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
893 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
894 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
896 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
898 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
899 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
902 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
904 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
905 scm_from_int for ints.
907 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
908 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
909 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
911 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
913 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
914 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
915 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
918 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
920 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
922 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
924 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
925 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
926 following alternatives.
928 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
929 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
930 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
931 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
933 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
934 do the validating for you.
936 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
937 have been discouraged.
939 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
940 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
943 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
945 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
946 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
949 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
951 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
954 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
957 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
959 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
960 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
962 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
963 scm_truncate_number should have.
965 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
966 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
968 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
971 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
972 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
973 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
975 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
976 easier to use from C.
978 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
979 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
981 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
982 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
983 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
986 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
987 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
988 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
989 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
992 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
993 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
994 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
995 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
996 and is thus quite efficient.
998 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1000 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1001 about the character encoding.
1003 Replace according to the following table:
1005 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1006 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1007 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1008 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1009 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1010 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1011 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1012 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1013 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1015 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1016 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1018 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1020 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1021 now also available to C code.
1023 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1025 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1026 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1027 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1029 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1032 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1034 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1035 unceremoniously removed.
1037 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1038 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1039 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1041 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1042 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1043 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1044 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1045 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1046 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1049 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1051 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1052 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1053 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1054 manual for more details.
1056 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1057 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1059 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1060 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1061 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1063 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1065 Migrate according to the following table:
1067 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1068 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1069 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1070 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1071 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1072 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1073 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1075 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1076 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1077 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1078 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1079 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1080 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1081 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1083 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1085 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1086 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1088 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1089 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1090 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1091 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1093 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1095 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1096 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1097 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1099 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1100 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1102 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1103 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1104 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1105 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1107 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1109 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1110 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1111 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1112 prevent a potential memory leak:
1119 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1121 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1122 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1124 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1125 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1132 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1133 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1137 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1139 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1141 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1142 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1143 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1145 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1146 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1148 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1150 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1152 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1153 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1154 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1156 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1157 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1159 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1160 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1161 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1162 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1165 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1167 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1168 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1169 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1171 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1173 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1174 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1176 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1178 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1179 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1181 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1183 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1184 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1185 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1187 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1189 You should not have used them.
1191 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1193 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1194 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1196 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1198 This macro is not intended for public use.
1200 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1202 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1204 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1206 Use scm_is_real instead.
1208 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1210 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1212 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1214 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1215 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1217 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1218 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1220 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1221 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1223 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1225 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1228 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1230 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1231 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1232 to the distribution" above.
1234 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1236 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1237 arguments are now passed directly:
1239 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1241 This is an incompatible change.
1243 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1245 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1246 function in the init section.
1248 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1250 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1252 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1253 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1254 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1255 stays roughly constant.
1257 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1258 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1259 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1260 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1261 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1264 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1265 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1266 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1267 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1269 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1270 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1271 objects for every type.
1274 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1276 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1278 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1280 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1281 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1282 initializes a new cell (see below).
1284 ** New functions for memory management
1286 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1287 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1288 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1289 cause aborts in long running programs.
1291 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1292 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1294 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1295 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1296 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1297 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1298 details and for upgrading instructions.
1300 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1301 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1302 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1304 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1306 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1307 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1308 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1309 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1310 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1312 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1313 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1314 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1316 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1317 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1319 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1321 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1322 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1323 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1324 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1325 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1327 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1329 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1332 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1334 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1336 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1338 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1339 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1341 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1343 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1344 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1346 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1347 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1349 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1351 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1353 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1354 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1355 blocking it is not well defined.
1357 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1359 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1360 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1361 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1362 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1363 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1364 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1365 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1366 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1367 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1368 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1369 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1370 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1371 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1372 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1373 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1374 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1375 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1376 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1377 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1378 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1379 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1380 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1381 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1382 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1383 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1384 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1385 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1386 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1387 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1388 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1389 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1391 * Changes to bundled modules
1395 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
1396 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
1397 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
1398 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
1399 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
1402 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1404 * Changes to the distribution
1406 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1408 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1410 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1411 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1412 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1413 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1414 indicate major changes in Guile.
1416 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1417 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1418 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1419 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1421 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1422 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1423 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1424 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1425 micro version number.
1427 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1429 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1431 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1432 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1434 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1436 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1437 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1438 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1440 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1442 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1443 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1444 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1447 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1449 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1452 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1454 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1455 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1457 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1459 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1460 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1463 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1465 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1468 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1471 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1473 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1475 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1476 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1477 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1479 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1481 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1483 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1486 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1488 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1490 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1492 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1493 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1494 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1496 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1498 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1500 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1501 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1510 See README there for more info.
1512 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1513 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1516 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1518 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1520 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1522 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1523 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1524 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1526 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1528 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1529 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1530 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1532 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1533 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1535 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1538 (oop goops describe)
1540 (oop goops active-slot)
1541 (oop goops composite-slot)
1543 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1544 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1545 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1547 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1549 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1550 in the default environment:
1552 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1553 %read-line write-line
1555 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1556 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1558 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1560 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1563 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1564 can be used for similar functionality.
1566 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1568 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1569 it defines two procedures:
1571 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1573 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1574 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1575 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1578 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1580 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1581 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1582 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1583 write large strings.
1585 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1587 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1588 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1590 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1592 for complete documentation.
1594 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1596 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1597 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1598 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1599 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1601 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1602 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1606 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1607 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1608 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1611 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1614 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1615 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1617 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1618 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1621 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1624 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1626 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1628 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1630 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1632 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1633 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1634 Scheme programs easier.
1636 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1637 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1638 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1639 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1640 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1643 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1644 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1646 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1649 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1651 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1652 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1653 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1656 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1658 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1660 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1661 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1662 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1663 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1664 was also ASCII, for example.
1666 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1668 tag - no replacement.
1669 fseek - replaced by seek.
1670 list* - replaced by cons*.
1672 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1676 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1677 (define m (make-safe-module))
1678 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1679 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1680 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1682 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1684 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1685 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1686 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1688 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1690 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1691 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1692 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1693 from the issues related to the module system.
1695 *** New function: load-extension
1697 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1699 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1701 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1702 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1703 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1705 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1707 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1708 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1709 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1710 support dynamic linking).
1712 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1714 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1715 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1716 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1717 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1720 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1721 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1722 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1723 library and initialize it explicitly.
1725 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1726 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1728 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1730 (define-module (foo bar))
1732 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1734 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1736 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1737 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1739 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1740 (null-environment 5)
1741 (interaction-environment)
1747 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1749 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1750 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1751 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1752 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1754 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1755 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1756 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1757 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1758 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1759 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1760 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1761 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1762 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1763 one eval to the next.
1765 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1766 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1767 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1768 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1769 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1771 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1772 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1773 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1774 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1775 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1776 used in a lexical environment.
1778 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1779 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1780 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1781 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1782 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1783 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1785 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1787 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1788 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1789 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1790 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1791 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1793 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1794 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1795 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1797 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1798 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1800 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1801 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1802 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1804 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1805 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1807 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1808 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1809 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1810 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1813 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1814 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1815 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1816 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1818 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1819 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1820 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1822 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1823 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1824 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1825 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1826 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1828 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1830 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1831 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1832 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1834 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1835 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1836 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1838 See manual for more info.
1840 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1842 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1843 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1844 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1846 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1848 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1849 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1850 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1852 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1853 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1854 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1855 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1857 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1859 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1860 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1862 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1863 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1864 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1865 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1866 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1869 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1870 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1871 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1872 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1873 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1874 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1876 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1877 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1878 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1879 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1880 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1882 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1883 objects are usually permanent.
1885 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1886 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1888 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1890 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1891 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1894 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1898 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1903 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1905 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1906 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1907 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1908 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1910 ** New function `make-object-property'
1912 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1913 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1917 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1918 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1922 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1923 source properties eventually.
1925 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1927 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1928 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1929 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1931 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1932 will be removed in the next release.
1934 ** New define-module option: pure
1936 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1941 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1944 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1946 Export names NAME1 ...
1948 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1949 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1953 (define-module (foo)
1955 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1958 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1963 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1965 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1967 ** New function: port? X
1969 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1970 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1972 ** New function: file-port?
1974 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1976 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1978 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1979 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1980 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1981 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1982 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1984 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1986 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1987 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1988 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1989 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1990 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1993 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1995 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1996 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1997 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1998 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2001 ** New function: crypt password salt
2003 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2006 ** New function: chroot path
2008 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2010 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2012 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2015 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2017 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2019 ** New function: getpass prompt
2021 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2024 ** New function: flock file operation
2026 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2028 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2030 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2033 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2035 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2036 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2037 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2038 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2039 of the temporary file.
2041 ** New function: open-input-string string
2043 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2044 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2045 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2047 ** New function: open-output-string
2049 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2050 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2052 ** New function: get-output-string
2054 Return the contents of an output string port.
2056 ** New function: identity
2058 Return the argument.
2060 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2061 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2063 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2065 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2066 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2067 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2070 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2071 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2073 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2075 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2076 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2077 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2080 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2081 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2082 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2086 Use `identity' instead.
2092 ** Deprecated: return-it
2096 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2098 Use `string-length' instead.
2100 ** Deprecated: flags
2102 Use `logior' instead.
2104 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2106 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2107 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2108 port-for-each is more flexible.
2110 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2111 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2112 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2114 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2116 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2118 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2120 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2122 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2124 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2125 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2127 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2128 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2130 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2131 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2133 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2135 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2136 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2138 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2139 Use module system operations for all variables.
2141 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2143 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2146 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2148 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2149 The following bugs have been fixed:
2151 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2152 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2155 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2156 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2157 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2159 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2160 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2162 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2163 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2166 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2167 The expansion used to be like so:
2169 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2171 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2173 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2175 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2176 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2178 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2180 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2181 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2182 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2186 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2187 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2189 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2194 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2195 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2197 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2198 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2199 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2201 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2204 * Changes to the C interface
2206 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2208 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2209 with "_t". What a concept.
2211 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2213 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2215 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2219 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2220 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2222 *** C Functions removed
2224 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2225 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2226 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2227 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2228 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2229 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2230 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2232 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2234 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2236 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2238 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2240 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2241 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2243 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2245 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2248 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2250 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2252 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2254 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2255 Evaluation" in the manual.
2257 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2259 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2260 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2262 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2264 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2265 Constructors" in the manual.
2267 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2269 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2270 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2272 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2274 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2276 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2277 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2278 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2280 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2282 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2284 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2285 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2286 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2289 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2291 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2293 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2294 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2296 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2298 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2299 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2300 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2301 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2303 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2304 scm_primitive_property_ref
2305 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2306 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2308 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2309 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2311 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2313 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2314 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2315 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2316 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2318 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2320 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2321 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2322 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2323 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2324 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2325 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2326 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2328 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2329 scm_remember_upto_here
2331 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2333 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2335 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2336 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2338 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2340 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2342 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2344 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2346 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2348 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2349 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2350 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2351 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2352 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2353 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2355 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2357 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2359 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2360 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2361 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2363 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2365 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2366 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2367 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2369 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2371 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2372 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2375 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2378 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2379 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2382 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2384 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2386 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2388 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2390 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2392 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2394 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2395 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2396 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2397 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2398 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2399 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2400 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2401 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2402 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2403 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2404 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2405 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2406 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2407 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2408 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2410 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2411 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2412 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2413 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2414 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2415 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2416 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2417 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2418 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2419 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2420 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2421 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2422 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2423 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2424 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2425 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2426 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2427 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2428 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2429 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2430 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2431 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2432 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2433 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2434 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2435 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2436 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2437 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2438 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2440 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2442 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2444 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2445 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2447 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2449 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2451 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2453 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2455 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2457 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2459 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2461 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2463 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2466 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2467 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2469 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2471 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2473 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2475 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2477 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2479 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2481 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2483 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2486 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2488 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2490 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2492 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2493 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2495 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2496 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2498 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2500 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2501 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2502 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2504 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2506 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2508 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2509 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2511 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2512 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2513 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2514 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2516 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2517 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2518 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2520 Use the new ones from above instead.
2522 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2524 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2525 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2526 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2528 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2529 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2531 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2532 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2535 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2536 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2538 Use the new functions instead.
2540 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2543 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2545 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2547 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2550 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2552 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2555 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2557 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2560 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2561 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2562 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2564 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2566 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2567 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2569 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2570 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2571 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2572 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2575 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2577 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2578 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2579 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2580 inexact for an exact.
2582 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2583 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2584 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2587 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2588 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2589 accept an inexact argument.
2591 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2592 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2594 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2597 ** New number validation macros:
2598 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2602 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2604 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2605 scm_unprotect_object.
2607 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2609 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2611 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2614 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2616 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2620 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2622 * Changes to the distribution
2624 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2626 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2627 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2628 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2629 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2630 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2631 obtain these programs.
2632 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2633 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2635 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2636 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2637 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2638 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2639 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2641 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2642 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2643 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2644 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2648 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2651 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2652 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2653 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2654 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2656 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2658 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2660 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2661 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2663 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2664 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2666 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2667 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2669 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2670 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2671 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2672 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2674 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2676 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2680 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2681 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2683 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2685 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2686 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2688 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2689 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2690 number of objects of that kind.
2692 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2694 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2695 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2696 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2697 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2698 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2700 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2702 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2704 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2706 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2709 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2711 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2713 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2715 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2717 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2719 ** New command line option --debug
2721 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2723 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2725 ** New help facility
2727 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2728 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2729 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2730 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2731 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2732 (help) gives this text
2734 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2735 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2737 Examples: (help help)
2739 (help "output-string")
2741 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2743 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2745 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2746 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2749 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2750 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2751 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2754 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2755 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2756 use absolute filenames when possible.
2758 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2759 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2760 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2763 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2765 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2766 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2767 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2768 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2770 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2772 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2774 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2775 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2776 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2778 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2779 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2780 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2782 (read-enable 'positions)
2783 (debug-enable 'debug)
2785 ** Backtraces in scripts
2787 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2791 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2793 at the top of the script.
2795 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2796 The second enables backtraces.)
2798 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2800 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2801 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2802 substantially faster than before.
2804 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2805 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2807 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2808 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2810 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2812 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2813 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2814 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2816 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2817 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2818 when this hook is run in the future.
2820 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2821 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2823 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2825 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2826 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2829 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2830 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2831 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2833 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2834 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2836 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2837 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2839 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2840 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2841 in order not to need further allocation.)
2843 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2846 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2847 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2848 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2849 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2851 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2853 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2856 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2858 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2861 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2862 GC in percent of total heap size
2865 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2866 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2868 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2870 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2871 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2873 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2875 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2876 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2878 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2880 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2881 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2885 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2886 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2888 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2890 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2892 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2894 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2896 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2898 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2899 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2901 (simple-format port message . args)
2902 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2903 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2904 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2905 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2906 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2907 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2908 Does not add a trailing newline."
2910 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2912 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2913 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2915 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2916 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2918 ** Deprecated: list*
2920 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2922 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2924 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2925 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2927 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2928 is returned as result.
2930 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2932 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2934 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2936 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2937 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2940 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2942 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2944 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2945 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2947 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2949 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2951 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2953 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2955 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2957 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2959 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2961 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2962 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2963 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2965 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2968 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2970 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2971 the readability of argument checking.
2973 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2975 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2977 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2979 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2980 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2981 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2982 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2983 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2984 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2985 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2987 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2989 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2991 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2992 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2994 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2996 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2997 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3000 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3002 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3003 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3004 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3006 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3007 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3008 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3010 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3011 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3012 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3013 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3014 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3015 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3016 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3018 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3019 scm_end_input (object);
3020 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3021 ptob->flush (object);
3023 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3024 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3027 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3029 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3031 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3032 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3033 removed in a future version.
3035 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3037 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3038 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3039 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3040 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3042 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3043 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3045 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3048 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3050 in your configure.in.
3052 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3057 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3063 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3065 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3069 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3070 (define make-message string-append)
3072 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3074 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3078 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3083 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3087 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3089 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3090 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3092 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3094 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3095 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3096 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3097 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3098 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3099 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3101 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3102 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3103 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3105 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3106 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3107 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3110 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3111 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3112 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3113 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3114 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3116 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3117 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3118 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3119 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3120 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3121 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3122 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3124 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3126 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3127 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3128 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3130 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3131 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3132 KEY in the calling thread.
3134 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3135 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3136 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3137 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3138 associated with the key.
3140 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3142 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3143 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3145 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3147 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3148 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3149 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3151 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3153 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3154 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3156 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3158 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3160 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3161 returned is undefined.
3163 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3164 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3165 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3167 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3168 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3169 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3171 ** New C level GC hooks
3173 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3175 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3178 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3179 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3180 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3182 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3183 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3184 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3186 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3187 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3190 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3192 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3193 allocation parameters
3195 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3196 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3197 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3201 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3202 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3203 scm_default_max_segment_size
3205 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3207 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3208 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3210 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3212 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3213 object and count on the object being protected until
3214 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3216 The functions also have better time complexity.
3218 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3219 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3220 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3221 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3222 are no longer needed.
3224 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3226 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3227 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3228 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3229 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3231 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3233 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3235 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3237 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3238 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3239 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3240 until this issue has been settled.
3242 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3244 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3246 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3249 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3251 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3253 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3254 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3255 descriptors were checked.
3257 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3258 atomically written to a pipe.
3260 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3261 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3262 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3263 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3264 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3265 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3266 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3269 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3270 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3271 is changed without calling tzset.
3273 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3275 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3276 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3277 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3279 (define write-network-long
3280 (lambda (value port)
3281 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3282 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3283 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3285 (define read-network-long
3287 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3288 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3289 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3291 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3292 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3294 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3295 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3296 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3297 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3299 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3300 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3301 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3302 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3306 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3308 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3312 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3313 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3314 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3320 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3321 for a description of available commands.
3323 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3324 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3325 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3327 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3329 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3330 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3332 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3334 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3336 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3337 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3338 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3339 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3340 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3341 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3344 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3346 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3347 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3348 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3349 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3351 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3352 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3354 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3356 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3358 ** Readline support has changed again.
3360 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3361 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3362 to activate readline is now
3364 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3367 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3369 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3370 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3371 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3374 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3375 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3376 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3379 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3380 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3381 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3382 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3383 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3384 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3386 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3387 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3389 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3391 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3392 object it receives is the same string passed to
3393 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3394 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3395 string, not the suffix.
3397 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3398 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3399 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3401 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3403 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3404 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3405 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3406 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3409 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3411 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3413 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3414 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3415 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3416 appear from left to right.
3418 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3421 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3423 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3424 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3426 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3430 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3432 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3434 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3436 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3437 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3438 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3440 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3442 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3444 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3446 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3449 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3451 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3452 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3453 mentioning it here anyway.
3455 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3457 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3458 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3459 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3460 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3463 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3465 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3467 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3469 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3470 otherwise return #f.
3472 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3474 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3475 returned by `opendir'.
3477 ** New function: using-readline?
3479 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3481 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3483 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3484 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3486 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3488 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3490 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3491 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3492 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3494 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3496 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3497 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3499 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3501 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3502 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3503 documentation slots are not yet used.
3505 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3507 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3508 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3509 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3514 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3515 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3516 (string-append x y))
3518 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3519 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3521 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3522 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3523 be made in a clean way.]
3525 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3527 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3529 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3531 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3532 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3534 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3536 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3538 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3540 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3542 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3543 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3544 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3545 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3548 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3550 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3552 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3554 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3556 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3557 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3559 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3561 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3563 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3565 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3567 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3568 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3569 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3570 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3571 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3572 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3574 This should not make any difference for most users.
3576 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3578 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3579 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3581 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3583 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3584 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3585 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3586 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3587 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3589 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3591 It is now replaced by:
3593 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3595 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3596 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3598 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3600 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3601 This might change when we get the new module system.
3603 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3607 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3609 * Changes to mailing lists
3611 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3613 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3616 * Changes to the distribution
3618 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3620 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3621 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3622 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3623 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3624 you explicitly specify it.
3626 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3627 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3628 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3629 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3630 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3633 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3634 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3635 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3636 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3638 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3639 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3640 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3643 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3645 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3648 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3650 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3652 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3653 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3654 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3655 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3657 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3658 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3661 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3663 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3664 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3665 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3666 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3667 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3668 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3669 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3670 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3682 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3683 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3684 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3685 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3686 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3691 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3692 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3700 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3705 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3706 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3709 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3710 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3711 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3712 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3714 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3716 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3718 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3719 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3721 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3723 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3725 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3726 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3728 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3731 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3733 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3735 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3737 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3739 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3741 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3743 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3744 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3745 when the hook was created.
3747 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3748 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3749 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3750 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3751 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3752 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3753 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3754 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3755 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3757 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3758 the dlopen family of functions.
3760 ** New function `provided?'
3762 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3763 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3764 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3765 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3767 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3769 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3770 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3771 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3772 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3775 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3776 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3777 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3778 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3780 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3781 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3782 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3785 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3786 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3787 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3788 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3789 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3790 but with the flag set.
3792 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3794 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3795 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3797 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3798 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3799 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3800 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3801 available Scheme format implementations.
3803 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3804 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3805 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3806 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3807 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3808 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3809 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3810 output is to the current error port if available by the
3811 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3814 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3815 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3816 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3817 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3818 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3819 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3820 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3821 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3823 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3824 be executed at a time.
3827 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3829 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3830 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3831 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3833 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3834 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3835 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3836 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3837 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3838 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3839 general form of a directive is:
3841 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3843 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3845 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3847 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3848 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3849 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3852 Any (print as `display' does).
3856 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3860 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3864 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3870 print number sign always.
3873 print comma separated.
3875 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3881 print number sign always.
3884 print comma separated.
3886 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3892 print number sign always.
3895 print comma separated.
3897 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3903 print number sign always.
3906 print comma separated.
3908 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3913 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3917 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3920 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3923 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3926 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3931 prints `y' and `ies'.
3934 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3937 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3942 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3946 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3949 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3950 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3952 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3955 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3956 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3958 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3961 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3963 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3965 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3968 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3970 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3972 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3975 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3978 The sign appears before the padding.
3986 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3988 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3993 print N page separators.
4003 newline is ignored, white space left.
4006 newline is left, white space ignored.
4011 relative tabulation.
4017 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4019 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4022 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4024 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4027 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4030 converts by `string-upcase'.
4033 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4035 jumps N arguments forward.
4038 jumps 1 argument backward.
4041 jumps N arguments backward.
4044 jumps to the 0th argument.
4047 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4049 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4050 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4052 take argument from N.
4055 true test conditional.
4058 if-else-then conditional.
4064 default clause follows.
4067 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4069 at most N iterations.
4072 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4075 args from the rest of arguments.
4078 args from the rest args (lists).
4089 aborts if N <= M <= K
4091 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4094 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4097 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4103 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4105 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4107 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4108 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4109 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4110 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4111 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4112 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4116 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4120 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4126 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4129 Print a `#\space' character
4131 print N `#\space' characters.
4134 Print a `#\tab' character
4136 print N `#\tab' characters.
4139 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4140 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4141 must be a positive decimal number.
4144 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4145 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4146 be processed by `read'.
4149 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4150 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4151 be processed by `read'.
4154 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4157 prints format version.
4160 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4161 and format it accordingly.
4163 *** Configuration Variables
4165 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4166 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4167 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4168 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4171 format:symbol-case-conv
4172 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4173 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4174 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4175 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4176 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4178 format:iobj-case-conv
4179 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4180 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4183 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4186 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4192 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4193 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4194 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4195 `format' padding style.
4198 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4199 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4200 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4201 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4205 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4206 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4207 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4210 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4211 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4212 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4213 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4214 parameters or modifiers)).
4217 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4219 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4221 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4222 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4224 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4225 string-downcase! functions.
4227 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4228 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4230 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4233 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4236 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4237 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4239 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4241 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4242 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4244 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4245 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4246 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4247 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4248 would if STRING were input.
4250 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4252 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4253 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4254 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4255 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4258 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4260 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4261 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4264 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4266 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4267 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4269 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4270 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4272 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4273 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4274 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4275 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4277 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4278 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4280 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4281 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4282 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4284 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4285 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4287 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4288 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4289 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4290 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4291 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4293 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4294 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4295 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4296 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4297 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4298 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4300 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4301 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4302 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4305 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4306 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4307 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4308 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4309 the following grammar:
4310 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4311 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4312 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4313 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4314 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4315 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4316 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4317 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4318 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4319 last option in its combination)
4321 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4322 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4323 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4324 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4326 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4327 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4328 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4330 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4331 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4332 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4334 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4335 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4336 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4337 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4338 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4339 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4340 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4341 ordinary argument strings.
4343 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4344 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4345 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4346 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4348 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4349 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4351 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4352 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4353 - a required option is omitted
4354 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4355 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4356 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4357 - an option predicate fails
4362 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4365 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4366 (verbose (required? #f)
4369 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4370 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4371 (predicate ,string?))))
4373 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4374 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4376 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4377 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4378 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4379 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4382 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4384 It will be removed in a few releases.
4386 ** New syntax: lambda*
4387 ** New syntax: define*
4388 ** New syntax: define*-public
4389 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4390 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4391 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4393 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4394 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4395 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4396 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4397 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4399 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4400 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4401 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4403 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4405 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4406 and examples for `lambda*':
4409 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4411 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4412 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4413 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4414 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4415 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4416 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4417 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4418 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4420 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4422 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4423 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4424 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4425 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4427 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4428 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4429 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4430 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4431 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4432 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4433 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4434 and until the procedure is called.
4436 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4438 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4439 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4440 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4441 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4442 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4443 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4444 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4445 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4446 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4447 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4449 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4450 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4451 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4452 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4455 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4457 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4458 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4459 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4460 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4462 ** New syntax: and-let*
4463 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4465 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4466 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4467 (<variable> <expression>)
4470 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4471 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4472 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4475 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4476 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4477 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4478 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4479 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4480 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4481 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4483 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4484 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4485 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4486 shadow earlier bindings.
4488 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4490 ** New sorting functions
4492 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4493 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4494 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4495 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4497 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4498 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4501 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4502 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4503 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4505 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4506 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4507 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4508 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4510 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4511 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4512 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4513 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4514 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4517 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4518 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4519 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4520 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4521 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4522 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4524 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4525 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4526 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4528 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4529 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4530 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4533 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4534 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4535 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4537 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4538 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4540 ** New built-in random number support
4542 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4543 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4544 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4545 returned have a uniform distribution.
4547 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4548 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4549 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4550 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4551 effect of the `random' operation.
4553 *** New variable: *random-state*
4554 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4555 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4556 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4557 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4558 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4561 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4562 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4563 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4564 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4565 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4567 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4568 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4569 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4570 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4571 initialized using SEED.
4573 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4574 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4575 range between 0 and 1.
4577 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4578 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4579 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4580 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4581 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4582 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4583 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4585 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4586 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4587 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4588 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4589 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4590 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4592 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4593 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4594 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4595 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4597 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4598 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4599 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4600 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4602 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4603 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4604 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4606 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4608 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4611 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4612 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4615 ** New function: make-guardian
4616 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4617 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4618 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4619 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4620 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4622 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4623 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4624 one object if at all.
4626 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4627 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4628 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4630 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4631 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4632 read again in last-in first-out order.
4634 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4635 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4637 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4639 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4640 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4641 file position is used.
4643 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4644 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4645 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4647 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4648 redefined using seek.
4650 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4651 size is not supplied.
4653 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4654 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4656 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4657 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4659 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4661 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4662 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4663 and returns the contents as a single string.
4665 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4666 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4667 lists in serial order.
4669 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4670 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4671 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4673 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4674 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4675 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4676 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4678 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4679 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4680 and #f if an error occured.
4682 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4684 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4685 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4686 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4687 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4689 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4691 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4694 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4696 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4699 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4703 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4704 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4706 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4707 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4711 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4713 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4715 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4716 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4718 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4720 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4721 might change when we get the new module system.
4723 ** The smob interface
4725 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4726 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4728 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4730 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4734 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4735 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4736 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4737 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4738 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4739 will be freed by the default free function.
4741 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4742 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4743 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4744 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4746 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4747 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4748 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4749 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4751 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4753 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4754 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4758 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4759 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4760 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4762 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4763 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4764 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4765 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4767 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4768 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4769 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4771 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4772 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4773 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4774 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4776 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4777 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4778 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4780 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4784 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4786 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4787 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4788 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4790 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4791 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4792 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4794 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4795 a string port's buffer.
4797 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4798 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4799 function pointers which together define the current random number
4800 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4801 number library functions.
4803 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4806 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4807 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4810 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4811 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4813 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4814 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4816 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4817 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4820 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4821 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4822 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4823 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4825 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4826 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4827 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4828 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4829 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4830 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4831 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4833 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4834 by libguile and the application.
4836 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4837 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4838 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4839 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4841 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4842 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4844 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4845 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4846 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4848 ** Random number library functions
4849 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4850 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4851 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4853 The default random state is stored in:
4855 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4856 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4857 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4862 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4864 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4865 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4866 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4867 isn't a random state.
4869 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4870 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4872 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4873 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4874 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4875 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4877 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4878 Return 32 random bits.
4880 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4881 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4883 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4884 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4886 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4887 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4889 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4890 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4892 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4893 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4894 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4898 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4900 * Changes to the distribution
4902 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4903 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4904 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4907 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4908 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4909 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4911 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4912 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4913 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4914 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4917 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4918 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4919 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4921 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4923 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4925 *** Function: batch-mode?
4927 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4930 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4932 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4933 case has not been implemented.
4935 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4936 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4937 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4940 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4941 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4943 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4945 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4947 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4949 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4950 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4953 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4954 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4955 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4956 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4959 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4961 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4962 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4963 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4964 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4965 find those libraries.
4967 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4968 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4971 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4973 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4974 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4975 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4976 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4978 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4979 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4980 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4984 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4986 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4987 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4988 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4991 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4992 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4993 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4994 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4996 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4997 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5000 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5001 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5002 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5003 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5004 compiler where to find the libraries.
5006 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5007 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5008 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5010 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5011 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5012 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5013 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5014 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5018 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5020 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5021 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5022 internationalization support.
5024 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5025 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5026 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5027 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5028 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5030 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5031 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5032 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5033 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5034 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5036 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5037 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5038 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5039 any GNU mirror site.
5041 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5043 ** New function: add-history STRING
5044 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5045 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5046 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5048 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5050 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5051 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5052 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5055 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5056 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5057 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5059 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5061 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5064 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5065 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5068 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5069 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5070 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5071 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5072 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5073 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5075 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5076 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5077 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5078 of the form mentioned above.
5080 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5081 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5082 returned in the special `rest' list.
5084 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5085 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5087 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5089 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5091 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5093 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5094 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5095 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5096 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5097 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5098 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5099 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5100 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5103 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5105 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5107 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5108 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5111 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5112 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5113 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5117 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5118 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5119 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5120 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5121 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5122 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5123 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5124 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5127 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5129 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5130 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5131 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5133 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5135 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5136 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5138 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5139 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5140 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5142 Why do we have this function?
5143 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5144 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5145 primitive, and display it differently, and
5146 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5147 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5150 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5151 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5154 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5155 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5156 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5157 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5159 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5160 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5163 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5164 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5166 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5168 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5169 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5170 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5171 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5172 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5173 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5174 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5177 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5179 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5180 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5182 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5183 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5184 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5185 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5186 properly continue the print chain.
5188 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5189 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5190 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5191 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5192 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5193 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5194 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5195 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5197 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5198 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5199 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5200 safest to not check for these pairs.
5202 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5203 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5204 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5205 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5207 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5209 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5210 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5212 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5214 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5216 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5217 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5218 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5220 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5221 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5222 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5224 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5225 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5226 the following functions and macros:
5228 Function: make-fluid
5230 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5231 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5232 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5233 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5234 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5236 Function: fluid? OBJ
5238 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5240 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5241 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5243 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5244 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5246 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5248 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5249 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5250 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5251 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5252 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5253 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5254 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5256 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5258 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5259 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5260 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5261 should evaluate to a fluid.
5263 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5265 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5266 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5267 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5268 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5269 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5271 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5274 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5276 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5278 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5280 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5283 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5284 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5285 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5286 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5287 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5290 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5291 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5292 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5294 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5295 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5296 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5298 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5299 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5300 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5301 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5303 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5304 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5305 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5306 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5308 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5309 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5310 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5311 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5313 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5314 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5315 their revealed counts set to zero.
5317 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5318 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5320 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5321 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5323 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5324 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5326 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5327 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5328 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5330 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5331 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5332 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5334 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5335 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5336 default environment inherited by child processes.
5338 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5339 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5340 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5342 The return value is unspecified.
5344 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5345 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5346 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5347 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5348 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5350 The return value is unspecified.
5352 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5353 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5361 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5362 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5365 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5368 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5369 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5370 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5372 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5373 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5374 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5375 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5378 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5379 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5381 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5382 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5383 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5384 the `environ' procedure.
5386 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5387 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5390 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5391 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5393 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5394 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5395 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5396 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5398 *** procedure: times
5399 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5400 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5401 return a selected component:
5404 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5408 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5411 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5415 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5416 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5420 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5421 terminated child processes.
5423 ** Removed: list-length
5424 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5425 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5427 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5429 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5431 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5433 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5434 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5435 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5436 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5438 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5439 extra complexity it introduces.
5441 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5442 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5444 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5445 variable to any non-empty value.
5447 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5448 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5450 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5452 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5453 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5455 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5457 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5458 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5460 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5462 ** vector handling routines
5464 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5465 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5466 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5467 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5468 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5470 ** pair and list routines
5472 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5475 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5477 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5480 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5482 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5484 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5485 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5486 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5487 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5488 site-specific initialization code.
5490 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5491 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5492 initialization processes.
5494 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5495 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5496 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5497 initialized properly.
5499 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5500 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5501 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5503 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5504 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5505 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5506 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5507 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5509 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5511 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5512 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5513 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5514 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5515 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5517 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5518 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5519 which look like this:
5522 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5524 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5525 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5528 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5529 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5532 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5534 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5535 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5536 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5538 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5539 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5540 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5541 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5542 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5544 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5545 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5547 int (*free) (SCM port);
5548 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5549 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5550 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5554 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5555 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5556 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5558 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5561 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5562 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5563 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5565 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5566 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5567 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5570 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5574 struct timeval *timeout);
5576 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5577 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5578 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5579 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5580 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5581 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5583 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5584 scm_catch_body_t body,
5586 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5589 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5590 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5591 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5592 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5593 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5594 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5596 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5598 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5601 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5602 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5603 spawning threads from application C code.
5605 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5606 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5607 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5608 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5609 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5610 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5612 ** Removed functions:
5614 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5615 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5617 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5619 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5620 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5622 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5624 ** mbstrings are now removed
5626 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5627 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5629 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5631 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5632 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5633 their new names and arguments:
5635 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5636 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5637 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5638 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5641 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5643 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5645 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5648 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5650 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5651 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5652 pass a #f arg to catch.
5654 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5656 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5657 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5660 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5661 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5662 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5663 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5664 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5665 reclaim its storage.
5667 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5668 worrying that some other function you call will call
5669 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5670 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5671 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5672 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5675 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5677 * Changes to the distribution
5679 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5680 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5683 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5684 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5686 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5687 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5689 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5691 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5692 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5693 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5695 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5697 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5698 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5699 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5700 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5701 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5702 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5704 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5705 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5706 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5709 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5710 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5711 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5712 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5714 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5715 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5716 libraries to your link command:
5718 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5719 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5720 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5721 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5723 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5724 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5725 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5727 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5729 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5730 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5733 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5735 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5736 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5737 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5738 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5739 searched is system dependent.
5741 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5743 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5745 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5747 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5748 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5750 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5752 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5753 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5754 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5755 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5756 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5759 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5761 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5762 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5763 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5764 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5765 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5767 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5769 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5770 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5772 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5774 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5775 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5776 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5779 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5781 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5782 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5783 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5784 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5786 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5787 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5789 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5791 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5792 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5794 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5796 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5797 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5805 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5807 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5808 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5809 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5810 a more informative way.
5812 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5813 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5814 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5815 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5816 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5817 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5819 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5820 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5823 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5824 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5825 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5828 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5829 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5830 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5831 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5832 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5833 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5835 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5836 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5837 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5838 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5841 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5842 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5843 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5844 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5845 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5846 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5848 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5849 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5850 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5851 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5852 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5854 *** regexp functions
5856 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5857 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5858 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5860 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5861 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5862 with SCSH regular expressions.
5864 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5865 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5866 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5867 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5869 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5870 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5871 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5872 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5874 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5875 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5876 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5877 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5878 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5879 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5881 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5882 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5883 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5884 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5885 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5887 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5889 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5890 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5891 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5892 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5894 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5895 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5896 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5898 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5899 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5901 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5904 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5905 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5906 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5908 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5909 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5910 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5912 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5913 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5914 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5915 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5916 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5919 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5921 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5922 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5923 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5924 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5925 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5926 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5928 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5929 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5930 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5932 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5933 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5936 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5937 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5939 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5940 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5941 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5942 may be one of the following arguments:
5944 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5946 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5948 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5949 the regexp match is written.
5951 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5952 following the regexp match is written.
5954 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5955 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5958 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5959 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5960 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5961 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5962 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5963 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5965 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5968 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5969 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5970 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5971 written out to PORT.
5973 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5974 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5975 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5976 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5977 will return after processing a single match.
5979 *** Match Structures
5981 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5982 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5983 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5984 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5985 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5986 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5989 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5990 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5991 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5992 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5993 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5995 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5996 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5997 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5999 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6000 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6001 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6002 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6003 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6005 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6006 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6008 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6009 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6011 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6012 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6014 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6015 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6017 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6018 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6019 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6020 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6022 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6023 Return the original TARGET string.
6025 *** Backslash Escapes
6027 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6028 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6029 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6030 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6031 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6032 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6034 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6035 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6036 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6037 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6038 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6039 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6040 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6041 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6043 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6044 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6045 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6046 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6047 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6048 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6049 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6051 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6052 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6053 return the resulting string.
6055 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6056 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6057 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6058 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6059 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6060 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6061 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6062 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6063 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6064 translated to the single character `*'.
6066 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6067 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6068 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6069 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6070 consecutive backslashes:
6072 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6074 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6075 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6076 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6078 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6079 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6080 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6081 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6082 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6083 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6085 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6087 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6088 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6089 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6090 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6091 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6092 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6093 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6094 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6095 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6096 cumbersome escape syntax.
6098 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6100 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6102 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6104 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6107 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6109 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6111 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6114 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6115 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6116 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6117 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6118 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6120 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6121 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6122 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6123 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6124 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6125 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6126 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6129 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6130 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6131 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6134 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6135 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6137 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6138 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6139 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6140 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6141 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6142 installed, you can say:
6144 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6147 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6149 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6150 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6151 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6152 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6153 new dynamic roots and threads.
6156 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6158 * Changes to the distribution.
6160 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6162 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6163 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6164 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6165 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6166 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6167 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6168 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6169 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6171 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6174 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6175 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6180 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6182 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6183 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6185 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6186 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6187 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6188 the (command-line) function.
6189 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6190 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6191 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6193 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6194 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6195 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6196 command line arguments
6197 -ds do -s script at this point
6198 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6199 -h, --help display this help and exit
6200 -v, --version display version information and exit
6201 \ read arguments from following script lines
6203 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6204 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6206 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6209 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6213 (main (command-line))
6215 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6217 ekko a speckled gecko
6219 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6220 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6221 following list of command-line arguments:
6223 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6225 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6226 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6227 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6228 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6229 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6231 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6233 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6235 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6236 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6239 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6240 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6241 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6242 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6244 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6245 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6246 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6247 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6249 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6253 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6257 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6259 ekko a speckled gecko
6261 Unix expands this into
6263 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6265 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6266 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6268 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6270 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6271 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6273 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6274 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6275 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6276 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6277 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6278 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6279 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6280 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6281 it only terminates the argument list.)
6282 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6283 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6284 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6285 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6286 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6287 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6288 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6289 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6291 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6293 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6294 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6295 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6296 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6297 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6299 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6300 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6301 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6303 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6305 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6306 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6307 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6308 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6311 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6312 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6313 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6315 * Changes to Scheme functions
6317 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6318 and disabled by default.
6320 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6321 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6322 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6323 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6325 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6327 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6329 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6330 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6332 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6333 (read-set! keywords #f)
6335 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6336 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6337 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6340 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6341 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6342 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6345 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6346 support for Scheme functions.
6348 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6349 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6350 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6351 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6354 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6355 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6356 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6359 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6360 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6361 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6364 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6365 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6366 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6367 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6368 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6369 display the result as a prompt.
6370 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6372 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6373 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6374 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6377 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6378 procedure of zero arguments.
6380 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6381 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6382 argument is bound in the current module.
6384 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6385 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6386 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6387 public bindings into the current module.
6389 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6390 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6392 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6393 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6395 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6396 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6398 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6399 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6401 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6402 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6404 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6405 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6406 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6407 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6408 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6410 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6411 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6412 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6413 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6415 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6418 ** Changes to I/O functions
6420 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6421 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6422 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6424 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6425 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6426 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6428 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6429 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6431 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6432 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6433 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6434 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6436 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6438 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6439 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6441 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6442 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6443 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6444 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6445 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6448 'trim omit delimiter from result
6449 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6450 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6451 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6453 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6455 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6456 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6458 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6459 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6460 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6461 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6462 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6464 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6465 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6466 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6468 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6469 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6470 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6471 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6473 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6474 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6476 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6477 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6479 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6481 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6482 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6483 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6484 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6485 a delimiting character.
6486 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6488 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6489 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6490 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6491 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6492 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6493 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6495 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6496 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6498 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6499 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6500 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6502 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6503 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6504 the array to read and write.
6506 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6507 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6510 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6512 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6515 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6516 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6517 Values for COMMAND are:
6519 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6520 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6521 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6522 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6523 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6524 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6525 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6526 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6528 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6530 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6531 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6532 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6533 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6534 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6535 corresponding return set will be the same.
6537 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6540 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6541 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6542 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6543 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6544 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6545 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6546 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6547 special file being created.
6549 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6550 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6552 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6553 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6554 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6555 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6556 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6557 and originating address.
6559 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6560 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6561 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6563 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6566 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6567 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6570 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6571 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6572 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6573 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6574 this function returns #f.
6576 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6577 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6578 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6581 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6582 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6583 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6586 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6587 a valid STATUS value.
6589 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6591 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6592 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6594 Component Accessor Setter
6595 ========================= ============ ============
6596 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6597 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6598 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6599 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6600 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6601 year tm:year set-tm:year
6602 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6603 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6604 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6605 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6606 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6608 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6609 describing the host system:
6612 ============================================== ================
6613 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6614 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6615 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6616 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6617 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6619 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6620 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6621 system's user database:
6624 ====================== =================
6625 user name passwd:name
6626 user password passwd:passwd
6629 real name passwd:gecos
6630 home directory passwd:dir
6631 shell program passwd:shell
6633 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6634 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6635 system's group database:
6638 ======================= ============
6639 group name group:name
6640 group password group:passwd
6642 group members group:mem
6644 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6645 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6649 ========================= ===============
6650 official name of host hostent:name
6651 alias list hostent:aliases
6652 host address type hostent:addrtype
6653 length of address hostent:length
6654 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6656 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6657 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6661 ========================= ===============
6662 official name of net netent:name
6663 alias list netent:aliases
6664 net number type netent:addrtype
6665 net number netent:net
6667 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6668 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6672 ========================= ===============
6673 official protocol name protoent:name
6674 alias list protoent:aliases
6675 protocol number protoent:proto
6677 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6678 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6682 ========================= ===============
6683 official service name servent:name
6684 alias list servent:aliases
6685 port number servent:port
6686 protocol to use servent:proto
6688 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6689 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6692 ======================================== ===============
6693 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6694 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6695 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6696 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6698 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6699 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6700 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6702 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6703 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6705 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6706 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6708 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6709 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6711 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6713 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6715 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6716 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6717 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6719 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6720 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6721 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6722 return the remaining characters as a string.
6724 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6725 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6726 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6728 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6730 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6732 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6735 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6738 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6739 and returns the array
6741 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6742 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6743 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6745 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6747 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6748 symbol's value from C code:
6750 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6751 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6752 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6753 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6755 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6756 without assigning them a value.
6758 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6759 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6760 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6762 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6763 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6764 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6766 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6767 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6769 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6770 doesn't actually care about that.
6772 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6773 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6774 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6776 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6777 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6778 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6779 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6780 which we have just created and initialized.
6782 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6783 should one occur. We call it like this:
6784 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6786 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6787 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6788 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6789 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6790 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6791 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6794 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6795 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6796 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6797 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6798 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6799 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6800 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6803 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6804 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6805 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6806 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6807 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6810 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6811 scm_internal_catch, except:
6813 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6814 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6815 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6816 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6819 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6820 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6821 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6823 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6824 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6825 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6826 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6829 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6830 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6831 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6833 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6834 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6835 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6836 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6837 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6839 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6840 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6841 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6843 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6844 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6845 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6847 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6848 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6850 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6851 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6852 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6855 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6856 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6857 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6858 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6859 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6860 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6861 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6864 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6865 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6867 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6868 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6869 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6870 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6871 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6874 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6875 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6877 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6878 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6881 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6882 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6884 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6887 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6888 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6889 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6890 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6891 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6892 given the following arguments:
6894 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6896 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6898 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6900 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6903 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6904 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6905 command-line arguments.
6907 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6908 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6909 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6910 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6911 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6912 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6915 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6918 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6919 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6921 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6922 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6924 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6925 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6926 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6927 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6929 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6930 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6932 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6933 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6934 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6935 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6937 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6938 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6940 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6941 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6943 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6945 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6946 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6947 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6950 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6951 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6953 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6954 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6959 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6962 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6964 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6965 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6966 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6967 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6969 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6971 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6973 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6974 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6975 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6976 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6977 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6978 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6979 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6980 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6981 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6982 for more information.
6984 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6985 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6987 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6988 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6989 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6990 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6991 following two lines at the top of the file:
6993 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6996 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6997 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6998 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7000 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7002 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7004 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7007 (display (car args))
7008 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7010 (loop (cdr args)))))
7013 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7014 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7015 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7016 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7017 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7018 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7022 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7025 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7028 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7030 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7031 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7032 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7033 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7034 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7037 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7038 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7039 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7040 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7041 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7044 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7047 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7048 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7049 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7052 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7053 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7054 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7056 to see a backtrace, and
7057 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7058 to see them by default.
7062 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7064 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7066 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7067 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7070 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7071 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7072 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7073 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7076 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7077 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7078 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7079 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7080 functions which inspired them.
7082 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7083 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7087 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7089 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7091 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7092 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7095 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7096 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7097 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7099 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7100 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7101 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7102 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7103 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7105 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7107 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7108 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7109 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7112 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7115 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7117 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7118 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7119 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7120 above should serve their purposes.
7122 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7123 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7124 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7125 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7127 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7130 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7131 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7132 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7133 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7135 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7136 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7137 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7138 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7140 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7141 for the `read' function.
7144 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7145 to that of `integer?'.
7147 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7148 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7150 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7151 it simply returns the object's property list.
7153 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7154 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7155 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7156 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7158 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7160 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7163 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7165 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7166 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7168 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7170 void (*main_func) (),
7173 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7174 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7175 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7176 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7177 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7179 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7180 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7181 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7182 know which arguments have been processed.
7184 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7185 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7186 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7187 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7188 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7190 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7191 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7192 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7193 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7194 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7195 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7196 people from making that mistake.
7198 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7199 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7201 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7203 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7207 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7210 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7211 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7212 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7213 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7216 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7217 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7218 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7219 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7222 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7223 have been added to the Guile library.
7225 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7226 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7227 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7230 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7231 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7232 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7234 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7235 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7236 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7237 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7238 argument from the list.
7241 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7244 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7245 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7247 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7248 to a Scheme port object.
7250 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7251 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7256 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7258 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7259 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7260 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7261 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7262 code as a special datatype.
7264 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7265 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7266 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7267 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7268 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7271 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7272 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7273 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7274 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7275 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7277 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7280 Copyright information:
7282 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7284 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7285 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7286 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7287 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7289 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7290 of this document, or of portions of it,
7291 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7292 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7297 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"