1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 (During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the latest
9 prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.)
11 Changes in 1.9.9 (since the 1.9.8 prerelease):
13 ** Faster dynamic binding with fluids
15 `fluid-ref' and `fluid-set' now have dedicated bytecode instructions.
16 Dynamic binding via `with-fluids' or `with-fluids*' no longer causes
17 recursive VM invocations, nor closure allocation of the body. Unused
18 fluid numbers are now garbage-collected.
20 ** Incompatible Tree-IL changes
22 There were a number of incompatible changes made in the last cycle
23 regarding Tree-IL, Guile's high-level intermediate language. See the
24 change logs for details. If these affected you, clearly you need to
25 submit your compiler patches upstream!
27 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
29 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
30 in the manual, for more information.
32 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
33 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
35 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
37 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
38 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
39 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
42 ** `catch', `throw', `with-throw-handler' implemented in Scheme
44 This doesn't have any end-user impact, but we're so proud of being able
45 to implement these constructs in terms of prompts and fluids, while not
46 changing the user API, that we need to mention it in the NEWS. Thanks
49 ** Current-module tracking in the syntax expander
51 Expanding a `begin' expression that changed the current module via an
52 `eval-when' wasn't working, due to a bug. This was fixed.
54 ** Backtraces at the REPL don't show REPL frames
56 The 1.9 series has had overly verbose backtraces, which showed frames
57 internal to the implementation of the REPL. This has been mostly fixed.
58 Please report bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
60 ** Additions to the foreign function interface (FFI)
62 The `(system foreign)' module now provides additional foreign types
63 corresponding to C's `int', `long', `size_t', etc.
65 In addition, the `dynamic-link' procedure can now be called without any
66 argument, in which case it returns a "global symbol handle", allowing
67 symbols currently available to the program to be looked up.
69 ** Documentation of `syntax-rules' macros
71 The documentation of macros in the manual is now separate from that of
72 procedures. A new section on `syntax-rules' macros has been added.
74 ** Effective version bump to 2.0
76 Guile has had an "effective version" for some time, typically generated
77 as "MAJOR-VERSION.MINOR-VERSION". This release decouples the effective
78 version from the actual version, setting it prematurely to 2.0. This
79 should shake out any version-related distribution bugs.
81 ** Parallel installability fixes
83 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
84 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
85 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
87 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
88 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
89 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
92 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
94 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
98 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
100 * New modules (see the manual for details)
102 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
103 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
104 ** `(rnrs bytevector)', the R6RS bytevector API
105 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
106 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
107 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
108 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface (FIXME: undocumented)
110 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
112 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
113 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
114 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
116 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
118 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
120 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
121 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
123 ** The stack limit is now initialized from the environment.
125 If getrlimit(2) is available and a stack limit is set, Guile will set
126 its stack limit to 80% of the rlimit. Otherwise the limit is 160000
127 words, a four-fold increase from the earlier default limit.
129 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
130 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
132 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
133 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
134 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
137 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
139 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. While
140 it is self-documenting to an extent, the new REPL has not yet been
141 documented in the manual. This will be fixed before 2.0.
143 ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
145 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
146 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
147 parenthesis. This option is on by default.
149 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
150 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS.
152 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
154 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
155 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
156 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
158 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
159 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
163 By default, if an exception is raised at the REPL and not caught by user
164 code, Guile will drop the user into a debugger. The user may request a
165 backtrace, inspect frames, or continue raising the exception. Full
166 documentation is available from within the debugger.
168 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
170 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
173 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
175 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
176 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
177 include `/path/to/lib'.
179 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
181 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
184 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
186 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
187 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
188 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
189 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
193 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
195 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
197 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
198 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
199 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
200 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
202 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
203 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
204 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
205 code, and simplifying debugging.
207 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
208 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
210 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
211 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
212 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
213 both of these situations.
215 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
216 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
217 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
218 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
220 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
222 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
223 not apply to the compiler.
225 ** No more `local-eval'
227 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
228 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
229 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
230 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
233 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
234 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
237 ** Files loaded with `primitive-load-path' will now be compiled
240 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
241 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
242 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
244 Note that this mechanism depends on preservation of the .scm and .go
245 modification times; if the .scm or .go files are moved after
246 installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
249 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
250 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
251 will be created if needed.
253 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
254 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
256 Note that there is currently a bug here: automatic compilation will
257 sometimes be attempted when it shouldn't.
259 For example, the old (lang elisp) modules are meant to be interpreted,
260 not compiled. This bug will be fixed before 2.0. FIXME 2.0: Should say
261 something here about module-transformer called for compile.
263 ** Files loaded with `load' will now be compiled automatically.
265 As with files loaded via `primitive-load-path', `load' will also compile
266 its target if autocompilation is enabled, and a fresh compiled file is
269 There are two points of difference to note, however. First, `load' does
270 not search `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' for the file; it only looks in the
271 autocompilation directory, normally a subdirectory of ~/.cache/guile.
273 Secondly, autocompilation also applies to files loaded via the -l
274 command-line argument -- so the user may experience a slight slowdown
275 the first time they run a Guile script, as the script is autocompiled.
277 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
279 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
280 in the next prerelease.
282 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
284 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
286 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
288 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
290 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
292 ** BUG: (procedure-property func 'arity) does not work on compiled
295 This will be fixed one way or another before 2.0.
297 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
298 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
299 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments',
301 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
302 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
303 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
304 procedures' docstrings for more information.
306 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
307 combining arity and formals. For example:
309 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
310 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
312 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
315 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
317 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
318 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
319 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
320 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
322 ** New language: ECMAScript
324 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
325 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
326 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
327 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
329 ** New language: Brainfuck
331 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
332 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
333 languages. See the manual for details, or
334 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
335 Brainfuck language itself.
337 ** New language: Elisp
339 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
340 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
341 Kraft, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
343 ** Defmacros may now have docstrings.
345 Indeed, any macro may have a docstring. `object-documentation' from
346 `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to retrieve the docstring, once you
347 have a macro value -- but see the above note about first-class macros.
348 Docstrings are associated with the syntax transformer procedures.
350 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
353 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
355 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
356 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
359 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
360 (define (helper x) ...)
362 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
364 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
367 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
368 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
370 ** Complete support for version information in Guile's `module' form
372 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. They may be loaded by
373 version as well. See "R6RS Version References", "General Information
374 about Modules", "Using Guile Modules", and "Creating Guile Modules" in
375 the manual for more information.
377 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
379 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
380 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
381 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
382 for more information.
384 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
386 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. It is still
387 missing documentation, however.
389 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
392 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
393 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
395 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
397 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
399 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
401 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
402 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
403 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
404 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
405 in response to user feedback.
407 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
409 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
410 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
413 (define (helper x) ...)
414 (define-macro (foo bar)
417 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
420 (define (helper x) ...)
421 (define-macro (foo bar)
422 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
424 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
428 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
430 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
432 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
439 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
440 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
443 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
445 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
449 (define-macro (ref x) x)
452 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
453 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
454 macros before code that uses them.
456 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
459 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
461 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
462 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
463 (double-literal 2) => 4
465 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
466 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
467 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
469 (eval-when (load compile eval)
470 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
471 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
472 (double-literal 2) => 4
474 See the (currently missing) documentation for eval-when for more
477 ** New variable, %pre-modules-transformer
479 Need to document this one some more.
481 ** Temporarily removed functions: `macroexpand', `macroexpand-1'
483 `macroexpand' will be added back before 2.0. It is unclear how to
484 implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though PLT Scheme does prove
487 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
489 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
490 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
491 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
493 ** Incompatible change to #'
495 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
496 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
497 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
498 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
500 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
502 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
505 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
507 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
508 in the manual, for more information.
510 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
511 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
513 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
514 works (with compiled procedures)
516 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
517 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
518 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
519 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
521 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
522 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
523 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
524 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
525 number of stack frames.
527 ** backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
528 active in the current continuation
530 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
531 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
532 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
533 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
535 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
536 through to the expanded code
538 This should result in better backtraces.
540 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
542 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
544 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
546 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
547 default. If there is sufficient demand, this syntax can be supported
550 ** New procedure, `define!'
552 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
553 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
554 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
555 less verbose than `module-define!'.
557 ** All modules have names now
559 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
560 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
561 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
562 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
564 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
566 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
567 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
568 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
570 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
571 values to the expected number
573 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
574 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
575 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
577 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
578 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
579 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
580 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
582 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
583 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
584 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
586 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
589 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
591 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
593 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
594 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
595 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
596 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
597 the interpreter would proceed.
599 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
600 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
601 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
602 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
604 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
606 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
607 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
608 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
609 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
610 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
611 you to contact the Guile developers.
613 ** psyntax is now the default expander
615 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
616 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
619 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
620 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
621 code in question was memoized.
623 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
624 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
625 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
626 `x432' instead of `x'.
628 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
629 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
630 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
631 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
633 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
635 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
636 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
637 `sc-expand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
640 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
641 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
642 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
643 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
645 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
647 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
648 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
649 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
650 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
654 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
657 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
658 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
659 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
661 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
662 by nonhygienic macros.
664 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
665 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
668 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
669 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
670 (define-macro (ref x)
677 (define-syntax bind-x
679 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
680 (define-macro (ref x)
684 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
685 as code is ported over from defmacros to syntax-case, it is possible to
686 run into situations like this. In the future, Guile will probably port
687 its `while' macro to syntax-case, which makes this issue one to know
690 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
692 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
693 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
695 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
696 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
699 This decision may be revisited before the 2.0 release. Feedback welcome
700 to guile-devel@gnu.org (subscription required) or bug-guile@gnu.org (no
701 subscription required).
703 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
705 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
706 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
707 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
709 ** Compiled procedures may now have more than one arity.
711 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
712 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
713 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
714 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
716 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
718 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
719 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
720 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
721 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
723 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
725 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
726 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
727 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
730 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
731 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
732 documentation for more details.
734 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
736 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
737 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
738 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
739 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
740 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
741 addressed by element and not by byte.
743 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
744 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
745 endianness, as one would expect.
747 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
748 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
749 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
750 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
753 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
754 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
756 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
757 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
759 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
761 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
763 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
764 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
765 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
767 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
768 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
770 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
772 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
774 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
775 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
777 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
779 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
780 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
783 ** Unicode characters
785 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
786 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
787 probably be introduced at some point.
791 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
792 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
793 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
795 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
796 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
797 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
798 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
802 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
804 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
806 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
807 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
808 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
809 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
810 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
813 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
814 code. This use is now discouraged.
816 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
818 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
819 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
820 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
823 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
824 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
825 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
827 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
829 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
831 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
832 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
833 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
834 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
836 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
838 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
839 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
842 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
844 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
845 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
846 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
849 ** EBCDIC support is removed
851 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
852 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
853 and was unmaintained.
855 ** Compile-time warnings
857 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
858 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
859 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
862 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
863 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
864 `#:warnings' as above.
866 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
867 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables.
869 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
871 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
874 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
876 This slightly improves program startup times.
878 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
880 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
882 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
884 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
885 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
886 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
887 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
889 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
890 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
891 implement method combinations.
895 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
896 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
897 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
898 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
899 applicable structures, but were unusable; entities will come back in the
900 next alpha release, but with a less stupid name.
902 ** Applicable struct support
904 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
905 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
906 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
907 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
908 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
909 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
910 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
911 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
913 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
915 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
916 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
917 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
918 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
920 ** eqv? not a generic
922 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
923 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
924 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
925 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
927 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
929 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
930 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
931 functions are deprecated.
933 ** Fast bit operations.
935 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
936 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
937 it's for number crunching too.
939 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
941 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
942 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
943 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
944 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
946 ** R6RS block comment support
948 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
949 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
951 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
953 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
954 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
956 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
957 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
958 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
960 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
961 ;; separate compilation phase.
962 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
964 ** Fix bad interaction between `false-if-exception' and stack-call.
966 Exceptions thrown by `false-if-exception' were erronously causing the
967 stack to be saved, causing later errors to show the incorrectly-saved
968 backtrace. This has been fixed.
970 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
972 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
974 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
976 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
978 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
980 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
982 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
984 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
986 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
987 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
988 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
990 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
992 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
993 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
995 ** New readline history functions
997 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
998 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
999 History library functions.
1001 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1002 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1004 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1007 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1009 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1010 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1011 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1012 `with-throw-handler'.
1014 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1016 * Changes to the C interface
1018 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1020 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1021 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1022 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1024 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1025 code easier and less error-prone.
1027 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
1029 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
1030 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
1031 available to C. Have fun!
1033 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
1035 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
1037 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
1040 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
1041 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
1043 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
1045 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
1046 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
1047 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
1050 ** Remove old evaluator closures
1052 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
1053 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
1054 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
1055 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
1058 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
1060 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
1061 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
1062 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
1063 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
1064 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
1065 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
1067 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
1068 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
1069 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
1070 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
1071 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
1072 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
1074 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
1075 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
1076 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
1077 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
1078 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
1080 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
1081 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
1082 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
1083 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
1084 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
1085 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
1087 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
1088 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
1089 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
1090 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
1093 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
1094 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
1097 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
1099 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
1100 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
1101 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
1102 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
1103 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
1105 ** Remove unused snarf macros
1107 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
1108 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
1110 ** Add foreign value wrapper
1112 Guile now has a datatype for aliasing "foreign" values, such as native
1113 long values. This should be useful for making a proper foreign function
1114 interface. Interested hackers should see libguile/foreign.h.
1116 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
1118 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
1119 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
1121 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
1123 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
1124 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
1126 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
1128 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
1129 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
1130 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
1131 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
1132 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
1135 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
1137 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
1138 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
1139 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
1140 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
1143 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
1144 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
1145 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
1146 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
1148 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
1150 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
1152 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
1154 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
1157 ** Inline vector allocation
1159 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
1160 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
1161 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
1162 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
1165 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
1167 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
1168 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
1172 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
1173 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
1174 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
1175 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
1176 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
1178 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
1180 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
1181 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
1182 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
1183 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
1184 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
1185 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
1189 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
1190 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
1191 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
1192 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
1194 ** Deprecate trampolines
1196 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
1197 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
1198 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
1199 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
1200 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
1202 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
1204 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
1205 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
1206 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
1207 like scm_is_null_or_nil. Probably in the future we will #define
1208 scm_is_null to scm_is_null_or_nil.
1210 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
1212 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
1213 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
1216 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
1217 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
1219 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
1221 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
1222 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
1224 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
1226 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
1227 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
1228 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
1229 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1231 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1233 * Changes to the distribution
1235 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1237 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1238 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1241 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1243 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1244 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1246 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1248 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1249 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1250 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1253 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1255 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1256 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1258 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1260 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1261 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1263 ** Parallel installability fixes
1265 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
1266 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
1267 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
1269 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
1270 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
1271 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
1274 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1276 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1277 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1278 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1279 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensionsdir
1280 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1282 ** New dependency: libgc
1284 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1286 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1288 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1289 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1291 ** New dependency: libffi
1293 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
1297 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1301 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1302 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1303 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1306 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1308 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1310 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
1314 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
1315 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
1316 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
1317 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
1318 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
1319 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
1320 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
1321 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
1322 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
1323 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
1324 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
1326 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
1328 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
1329 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
1330 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
1333 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
1336 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
1338 * New features (see the manual for details)
1340 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
1342 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
1344 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
1345 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
1346 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
1348 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
1350 * Changes to the distribution
1352 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
1354 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
1355 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
1357 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
1359 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
1360 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
1365 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
1366 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
1367 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
1368 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
1369 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
1370 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
1371 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
1372 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
1373 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
1374 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
1375 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
1376 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
1377 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
1378 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
1380 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
1381 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
1382 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
1383 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
1384 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
1387 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
1389 * Infrastructure changes
1391 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
1393 The new repository can be accessed using
1394 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
1395 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
1397 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
1399 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
1401 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1405 * New features (see the manual for details)
1407 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
1408 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
1409 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
1411 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
1412 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
1413 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
1414 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
1416 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
1418 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
1419 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
1420 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
1424 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
1425 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
1427 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
1428 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
1430 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
1431 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
1433 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
1434 lead to a stack overflow.
1436 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
1437 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
1438 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
1439 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
1440 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
1441 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
1442 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
1443 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
1444 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
1445 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
1446 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
1447 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
1448 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
1449 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
1450 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
1451 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
1454 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
1458 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
1459 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
1460 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
1461 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
1462 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
1463 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
1464 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
1465 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
1466 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
1467 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
1468 system and library calls.
1469 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
1470 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
1471 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
1472 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
1473 uniform vectors on AIX.
1474 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
1475 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
1476 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
1477 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
1478 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
1480 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1484 * Documentation fixes and improvements
1486 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
1488 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
1489 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
1491 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
1493 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
1495 * Changes to the distribution
1497 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1499 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1500 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1501 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1503 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1505 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1508 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1510 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1517 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1518 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1519 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1520 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1521 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1522 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1523 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1525 * Implementation improvements
1527 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1528 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1531 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1533 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1535 ** set-program-arguments
1538 * Incompatible changes
1540 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1542 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1543 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1544 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1545 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1550 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1551 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1552 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1553 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
1554 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
1555 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
1557 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
1558 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
1559 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
1560 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
1561 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
1562 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
1563 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
1564 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
1565 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
1566 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
1567 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
1568 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
1569 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
1570 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
1571 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
1572 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
1575 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
1577 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
1579 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1581 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
1582 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
1583 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
1584 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
1585 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
1586 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
1594 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
1596 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
1598 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
1600 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
1602 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
1604 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
1606 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
1607 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
1608 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
1610 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
1612 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
1614 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
1615 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
1617 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
1619 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
1620 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
1622 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
1624 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
1626 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
1628 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
1630 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
1632 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
1634 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
1636 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
1638 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
1640 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
1641 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
1642 file was on a different device.
1645 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
1647 * Changes to the distribution
1649 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
1651 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
1653 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
1655 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
1657 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
1659 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
1662 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
1664 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
1665 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
1666 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
1667 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
1668 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
1669 items like the versioned share directory name
1670 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
1672 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
1673 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
1674 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
1675 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
1676 with each micro release during a stable series.
1678 ** Thread implementation has changed.
1680 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
1681 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
1682 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
1683 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
1684 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
1687 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
1688 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
1689 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
1690 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
1693 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
1694 in which case "null" threads are used.
1696 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
1697 "Blocking", and others.
1699 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
1701 This is a milder form of deprecation.
1703 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
1704 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
1705 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
1706 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
1707 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
1709 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
1710 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
1712 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
1714 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
1715 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
1717 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
1720 This SRFI is always available.
1722 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
1724 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
1725 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
1726 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
1727 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
1730 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
1732 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
1733 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
1734 parameters without currying.
1736 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
1738 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
1739 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
1741 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
1742 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
1745 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
1746 with a renaming import, for example.
1748 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
1750 The official version is good enough now.
1752 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
1754 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
1755 provided. Use 'make html'.
1757 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
1759 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
1760 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
1761 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
1762 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
1764 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
1766 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
1769 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1771 ** New command line option `-L'.
1773 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
1775 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
1777 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
1778 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
1780 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
1782 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
1783 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
1785 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
1787 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
1788 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
1791 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
1794 (define-module (demo)
1798 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
1801 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1803 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
1805 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
1806 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
1807 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
1809 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
1811 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
1812 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
1814 ** New function hashx-remove!
1816 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
1818 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
1819 barriers and dynamic states.
1821 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
1822 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
1823 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
1826 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
1827 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
1828 Barriers" in the manual.
1830 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
1831 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
1833 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
1835 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
1836 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
1837 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
1838 variable %load-path.
1840 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
1842 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
1843 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
1845 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
1846 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
1847 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
1849 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
1850 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
1852 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
1853 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
1854 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
1856 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
1857 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
1858 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
1861 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
1862 substrings and read-only strings.
1864 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
1865 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
1868 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
1870 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
1879 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
1880 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
1881 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
1883 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
1884 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
1885 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
1886 on an ANSI terminal:
1888 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
1889 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
1892 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
1894 See the manual for details.
1896 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
1898 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
1901 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
1903 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
1904 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
1905 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
1906 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
1908 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
1909 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
1910 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
1913 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
1915 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
1916 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
1927 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
1931 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
1936 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
1940 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
1944 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
1947 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
1948 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
1949 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
1950 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
1952 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
1953 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
1956 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
1959 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
1963 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
1965 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
1966 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
1967 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
1970 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
1973 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
1975 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
1978 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
1979 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
1982 (define-module (foo)
1987 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
1988 has been detected is to
1990 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
1991 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
1992 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
1995 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
1998 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
2000 to your .guile init file.
2002 ** New define-module option: :replace
2004 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
2007 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
2008 for the core binding `format'.
2010 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
2012 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
2013 a prefix to all imported bindings.
2015 (define-module (foo)
2016 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
2018 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
2021 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
2023 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
2024 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
2025 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
2027 ** New function: effective-version
2029 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2030 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2031 to the distribution" above.
2033 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
2035 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
2036 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
2038 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
2040 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
2041 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
2043 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
2045 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
2046 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
2049 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
2051 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
2053 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
2055 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
2056 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
2057 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
2060 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
2061 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
2062 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
2063 'system-async-mark'.
2065 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
2066 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
2068 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
2069 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
2070 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
2073 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
2075 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
2076 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
2079 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
2080 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2082 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
2083 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
2084 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
2085 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
2086 level for the current thread.
2088 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
2090 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
2092 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2093 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
2096 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
2098 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
2100 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
2103 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
2105 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
2108 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
2109 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
2110 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
2112 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
2113 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
2114 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
2115 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
2126 ERROR: Numerical overflow
2128 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
2131 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
2133 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
2134 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
2135 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
2146 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
2148 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
2149 them is also done exactly, of course:
2154 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
2155 for exact arguments.
2157 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
2158 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
2160 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
2162 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
2163 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
2164 equal to a floating point number. For example:
2166 (inexact->exact 1.234)
2167 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
2169 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
2171 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
2174 ** New function 'rationalize'.
2176 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
2177 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
2179 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
2182 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
2183 result when both its arguments are exact.
2185 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
2187 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
2188 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
2189 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
2191 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
2193 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
2194 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
2195 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
2197 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
2200 ** pretty-print has more options.
2202 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
2203 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
2204 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
2206 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
2208 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
2209 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
2210 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
2212 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
2214 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
2215 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
2217 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
2219 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
2220 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
2223 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
2225 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
2226 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
2227 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
2228 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
2229 without the soft port blocking.
2231 ** Deprecated: undefine
2233 There is no replacement for undefine.
2235 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
2236 have been discouraged.
2238 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
2239 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
2240 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
2243 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2245 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2247 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2248 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2249 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2250 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2253 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2254 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2255 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2257 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2259 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2260 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2261 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2262 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2263 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2264 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2266 * Changes to the C interface
2268 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2269 take a 'delete' function argument.
2271 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2272 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2274 This is an incompatible change.
2276 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2278 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2279 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2280 --disable-deprecated.
2282 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2284 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2285 Scheme values has been added.
2287 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2288 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2291 - int scm_is_* (...)
2293 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2294 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2296 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2298 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2299 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2302 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2304 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2305 scm_from_int for ints.
2307 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2308 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2309 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2311 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
2313 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
2314 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
2315 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
2318 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
2320 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
2322 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
2324 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
2325 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
2326 following alternatives.
2328 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
2329 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
2330 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
2331 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
2333 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
2334 do the validating for you.
2336 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
2337 have been discouraged.
2339 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
2340 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
2343 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
2345 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
2346 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
2349 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
2351 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
2354 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
2357 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
2359 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
2360 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
2362 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
2363 scm_truncate_number should have.
2365 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
2366 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
2368 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
2371 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
2372 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
2373 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
2375 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
2376 easier to use from C.
2378 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
2379 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
2381 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
2382 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
2383 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
2386 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
2387 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
2388 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
2389 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
2392 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
2393 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
2394 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
2395 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
2396 and is thus quite efficient.
2398 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
2400 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
2401 about the character encoding.
2403 Replace according to the following table:
2405 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
2406 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
2407 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
2408 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
2409 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
2410 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
2411 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
2412 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
2413 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
2415 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
2416 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
2418 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
2420 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
2421 now also available to C code.
2423 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
2425 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
2426 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
2427 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
2429 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
2432 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
2434 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
2435 unceremoniously removed.
2437 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
2438 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
2439 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
2441 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
2442 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
2443 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2444 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2445 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
2446 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
2449 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
2451 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
2452 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
2453 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
2454 manual for more details.
2456 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2457 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2459 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
2460 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
2461 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2463 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
2465 Migrate according to the following table:
2467 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
2468 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
2469 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
2470 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
2471 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
2472 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
2473 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
2475 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
2476 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
2477 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
2478 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
2479 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
2480 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
2481 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
2483 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
2485 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
2486 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
2488 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
2489 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
2490 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
2491 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
2493 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
2495 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2496 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2497 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2499 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2500 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2502 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2503 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2504 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2505 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2507 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2509 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2510 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2511 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2512 prevent a potential memory leak:
2519 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2521 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2522 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2524 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2525 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2532 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2533 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2537 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2539 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2541 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2542 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2543 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2545 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2546 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2548 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2550 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2552 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2553 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
2554 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
2556 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
2557 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
2559 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
2560 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
2561 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
2562 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
2565 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
2567 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
2568 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2569 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
2571 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
2573 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
2574 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
2576 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
2578 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
2579 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
2581 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
2583 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
2584 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
2585 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
2587 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
2589 You should not have used them.
2591 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
2593 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
2594 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
2596 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
2598 This macro is not intended for public use.
2600 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
2602 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
2604 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
2606 Use scm_is_real instead.
2608 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
2610 Use scm_is_complex instead.
2612 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
2614 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
2615 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
2617 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
2618 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
2620 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
2621 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
2623 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
2625 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
2628 ** New function: scm_effective_version
2630 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2631 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2632 to the distribution" above.
2634 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
2636 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
2637 arguments are now passed directly:
2639 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
2641 This is an incompatible change.
2643 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
2645 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
2646 function in the init section.
2648 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
2650 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
2652 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
2653 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
2654 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
2655 stays roughly constant.
2657 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
2658 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
2659 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
2660 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
2661 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
2664 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
2665 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
2666 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
2667 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
2669 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
2670 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
2671 objects for every type.
2674 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
2676 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
2678 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
2680 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
2681 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
2682 initializes a new cell (see below).
2684 ** New functions for memory management
2686 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
2687 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
2688 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
2689 cause aborts in long running programs.
2691 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
2692 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
2694 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
2695 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
2696 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
2697 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
2698 details and for upgrading instructions.
2700 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
2701 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
2702 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
2704 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
2706 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
2707 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
2708 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
2709 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
2710 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
2712 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
2713 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
2714 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
2716 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
2717 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
2719 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
2721 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
2722 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
2723 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
2724 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
2725 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
2727 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
2729 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
2732 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
2734 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
2736 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
2738 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
2739 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
2741 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
2743 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
2744 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
2746 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
2747 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
2749 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
2751 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
2753 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
2754 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
2755 blocking it is not well defined.
2757 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
2759 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
2760 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
2761 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
2762 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
2763 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
2764 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
2765 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
2766 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
2767 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
2768 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
2769 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2770 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
2771 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
2772 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
2773 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
2774 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
2775 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
2776 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2777 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
2778 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
2779 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
2780 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
2781 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
2782 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
2783 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
2784 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
2785 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
2786 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
2787 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
2788 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
2789 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
2791 * Changes to bundled modules
2795 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
2796 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
2797 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
2798 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
2799 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
2802 Changes since Guile 1.4:
2804 * Changes to the distribution
2806 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
2808 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
2810 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
2811 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
2812 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
2813 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
2814 indicate major changes in Guile.
2816 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
2817 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
2818 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
2819 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
2821 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
2822 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
2823 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
2824 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
2825 micro version number.
2827 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
2829 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
2831 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
2832 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
2834 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
2836 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
2837 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
2838 See INSTALL and README for more information.
2840 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
2842 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
2843 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
2844 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
2847 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
2849 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
2852 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
2854 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
2855 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
2857 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
2859 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
2860 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
2863 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
2865 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
2868 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
2871 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
2873 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
2875 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
2876 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
2877 open-output-string, get-output-string.
2879 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
2881 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
2883 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
2886 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
2888 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
2890 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
2892 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
2893 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
2894 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
2896 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
2898 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
2900 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
2901 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
2910 See README there for more info.
2912 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
2913 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
2916 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
2918 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
2920 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
2922 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
2923 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
2924 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
2926 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
2928 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
2929 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
2930 to be named `and-let*', of course.
2932 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
2933 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
2935 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
2938 (oop goops describe)
2940 (oop goops active-slot)
2941 (oop goops composite-slot)
2943 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
2944 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
2945 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
2947 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
2949 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
2950 in the default environment:
2952 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
2953 %read-line write-line
2955 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
2956 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
2958 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
2960 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
2963 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
2964 can be used for similar functionality.
2966 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
2968 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
2969 it defines two procedures:
2971 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2973 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
2974 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2975 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
2978 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2980 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
2981 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2982 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
2983 write large strings.
2985 ** New module (ice-9 match)
2987 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
2988 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
2990 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
2992 for complete documentation.
2994 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
2996 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
2997 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
2998 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
2999 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
3001 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
3002 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
3006 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
3007 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
3008 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
3011 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
3014 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
3015 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
3017 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
3018 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
3021 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
3024 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
3026 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
3028 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3030 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
3032 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
3033 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
3034 Scheme programs easier.
3036 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
3037 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
3038 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
3039 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
3040 `cond-expand' when using this option.
3043 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
3044 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
3046 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
3049 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
3051 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
3052 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
3053 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
3056 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3058 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
3060 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
3061 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
3062 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
3063 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
3064 was also ASCII, for example.
3066 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
3068 tag - no replacement.
3069 fseek - replaced by seek.
3070 list* - replaced by cons*.
3072 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
3076 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
3077 (define m (make-safe-module))
3078 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
3079 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
3080 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
3082 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
3084 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
3085 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
3086 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
3088 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
3090 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
3091 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
3092 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
3093 from the issues related to the module system.
3095 *** New function: load-extension
3097 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
3099 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
3101 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
3102 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
3103 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
3105 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
3107 This function registers a initialization function for use by
3108 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
3109 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
3110 support dynamic linking).
3112 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
3114 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
3115 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
3116 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
3117 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
3120 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
3121 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
3122 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
3123 library and initialize it explicitly.
3125 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
3126 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
3128 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
3130 (define-module (foo bar))
3132 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
3134 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
3136 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
3137 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
3139 (scheme-report-environment 5)
3140 (null-environment 5)
3141 (interaction-environment)
3147 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
3149 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
3150 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
3151 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
3152 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
3154 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
3155 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
3156 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
3157 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
3158 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
3159 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
3160 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
3161 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
3162 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
3163 one eval to the next.
3165 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
3166 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
3167 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
3168 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
3169 subforms are at the top-level as well.
3171 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
3172 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
3173 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
3174 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
3175 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
3176 used in a lexical environment.
3178 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
3179 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
3180 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
3181 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
3182 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
3183 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
3185 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
3187 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
3188 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
3189 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
3190 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
3191 new facilities: selection and renaming.
3193 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
3194 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
3195 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
3197 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
3198 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
3200 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
3201 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
3202 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3204 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3205 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
3207 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
3208 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
3209 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
3210 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
3213 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3214 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
3215 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
3216 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3218 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3219 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3220 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
3222 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3223 ;; and all four by upcasing.
3224 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
3225 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
3226 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
3228 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3230 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3231 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3232 :renamer upcase-symbol))
3234 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
3235 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
3236 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
3238 See manual for more info.
3240 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
3242 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
3243 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
3244 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3246 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3248 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3249 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3250 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3252 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3253 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3254 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3255 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3257 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3259 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3260 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3262 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3263 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3264 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3265 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3266 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3269 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3270 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3271 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3272 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3273 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3274 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3276 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3277 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3278 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3279 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3280 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3282 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3283 objects are usually permanent.
3285 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3286 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3288 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3290 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3291 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3294 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3298 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3303 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3305 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3306 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3307 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3308 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3310 ** New function `make-object-property'
3312 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
3313 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
3317 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
3318 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
3322 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
3323 source properties eventually.
3325 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
3327 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
3328 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
3329 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
3331 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
3332 will be removed in the next release.
3334 ** New define-module option: pure
3336 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
3341 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
3344 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
3346 Export names NAME1 ...
3348 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
3349 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
3353 (define-module (foo)
3355 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
3358 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
3363 ** New function: object->string OBJ
3365 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
3367 ** New function: port? X
3369 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
3370 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
3372 ** New function: file-port?
3374 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
3376 ** New function: port-for-each proc
3378 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
3379 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
3380 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
3381 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
3382 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
3384 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
3386 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
3387 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
3388 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
3389 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
3390 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
3393 ** New function: close-fdes fd
3395 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
3396 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
3397 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
3398 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
3401 ** New function: crypt password salt
3403 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
3406 ** New function: chroot path
3408 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
3410 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
3412 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
3415 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
3417 Get or set the priority of the running process.
3419 ** New function: getpass prompt
3421 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
3424 ** New function: flock file operation
3426 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
3428 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
3430 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
3433 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
3435 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
3436 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
3437 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
3438 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
3439 of the temporary file.
3441 ** New function: open-input-string string
3443 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
3444 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
3445 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
3447 ** New function: open-output-string
3449 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
3450 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
3452 ** New function: get-output-string
3454 Return the contents of an output string port.
3456 ** New function: identity
3458 Return the argument.
3460 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
3461 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
3463 ** New function: inet-pton family address
3465 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
3466 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
3467 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3470 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
3471 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
3473 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
3475 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
3476 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
3477 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3480 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
3481 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
3482 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
3486 Use `identity' instead.
3492 ** Deprecated: return-it
3496 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3498 Use `string-length' instead.
3500 ** Deprecated: flags
3502 Use `logior' instead.
3504 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3506 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3507 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3508 port-for-each is more flexible.
3510 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3511 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3512 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3514 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3516 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3518 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3520 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3522 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3524 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3525 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3527 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3528 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3530 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3531 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3533 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3535 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3536 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3538 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3539 Use module system operations for all variables.
3541 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3543 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3546 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3548 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3549 The following bugs have been fixed:
3551 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3552 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
3555 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
3556 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
3557 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
3559 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
3560 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
3562 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
3563 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
3566 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
3567 The expansion used to be like so:
3569 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
3571 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
3573 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
3575 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
3576 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
3578 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
3580 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
3581 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
3582 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
3586 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
3587 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
3589 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
3594 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
3595 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
3597 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
3598 and `d', other keywords allowed.
3599 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
3601 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
3604 * Changes to the C interface
3606 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
3608 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
3609 with "_t". What a concept.
3611 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
3613 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
3615 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
3619 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
3620 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
3622 *** C Functions removed
3624 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
3625 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
3626 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
3627 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
3628 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
3629 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
3630 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
3632 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
3634 Use scm_mem2string instead.
3636 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
3638 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
3640 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
3641 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
3643 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
3645 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
3648 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
3650 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
3652 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
3654 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
3655 Evaluation" in the manual.
3657 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
3659 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
3660 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
3662 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
3664 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
3665 Constructors" in the manual.
3667 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
3669 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
3670 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
3672 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
3674 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
3676 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
3677 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
3678 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
3680 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3682 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
3684 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
3685 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
3686 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
3689 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3691 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
3693 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
3694 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
3696 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
3698 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
3699 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
3700 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
3701 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
3703 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
3704 scm_primitive_property_ref
3705 scm_primitive_property_set_x
3706 scm_primitive_property_del_x
3708 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
3709 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
3711 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
3713 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
3714 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
3715 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
3716 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
3718 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
3720 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
3721 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
3722 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
3723 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
3724 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
3725 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
3726 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
3728 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
3729 scm_remember_upto_here
3731 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
3733 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
3735 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
3736 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
3738 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
3740 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
3742 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
3744 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
3746 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
3748 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
3749 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
3750 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
3751 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
3752 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
3753 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
3755 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
3757 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3759 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
3760 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3761 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
3763 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
3765 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
3766 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3767 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
3769 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
3771 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
3772 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
3775 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
3778 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
3779 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3782 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3784 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
3786 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
3788 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3790 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
3792 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
3794 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
3795 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
3796 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
3797 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3798 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
3799 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
3800 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
3801 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3802 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
3803 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
3804 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
3805 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
3806 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
3807 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
3808 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
3810 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
3811 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
3812 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
3813 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
3814 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
3815 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
3816 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
3817 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
3818 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3819 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
3820 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
3821 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
3822 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
3823 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
3824 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
3825 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3826 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3827 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
3828 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
3829 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
3830 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
3831 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
3832 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
3833 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
3834 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
3835 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
3836 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
3837 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
3838 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
3840 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
3842 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
3844 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
3845 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
3847 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
3849 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
3851 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
3853 Use scm_string_hash instead.
3855 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
3857 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
3859 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
3861 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
3863 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
3866 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
3867 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
3869 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
3871 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
3873 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
3875 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
3877 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
3879 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
3881 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
3883 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
3886 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
3888 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
3890 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
3892 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
3893 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
3895 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
3896 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
3898 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
3900 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
3901 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
3902 scm_module_define, scm_define.
3904 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
3906 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
3908 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
3909 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
3911 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
3912 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
3913 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
3914 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
3916 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
3917 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
3918 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
3920 Use the new ones from above instead.
3922 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
3924 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
3925 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
3926 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
3928 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
3929 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
3931 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
3932 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
3935 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
3936 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
3938 Use the new functions instead.
3940 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
3943 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
3945 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
3947 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
3950 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
3952 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
3955 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
3957 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
3960 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
3961 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
3962 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
3964 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
3966 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
3967 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
3969 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
3970 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
3971 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
3972 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
3975 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
3977 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
3978 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
3979 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
3980 inexact for an exact.
3982 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
3983 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
3984 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
3987 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
3988 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
3989 accept an inexact argument.
3991 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
3992 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
3994 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
3997 ** New number validation macros:
3998 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
4002 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
4004 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
4005 scm_unprotect_object.
4007 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
4009 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
4011 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
4014 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
4016 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
4020 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
4022 * Changes to the distribution
4024 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
4026 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
4027 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
4028 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
4029 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
4030 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
4031 obtain these programs.
4032 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
4033 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
4035 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
4036 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
4037 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
4038 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
4039 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
4041 However, this approach means that minor differences between
4042 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
4043 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
4044 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
4048 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
4051 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
4052 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
4053 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
4054 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
4056 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
4058 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
4060 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
4061 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
4063 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
4064 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
4066 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
4067 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
4069 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
4070 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
4071 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
4072 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
4074 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
4076 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
4080 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
4081 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
4083 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
4085 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
4086 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
4088 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
4089 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
4090 number of objects of that kind.
4092 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
4094 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
4095 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
4096 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
4097 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
4098 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
4100 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
4102 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
4104 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
4106 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
4109 ** New module (ice-9 time)
4111 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
4113 ** New module (ice-9 history)
4115 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
4117 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4119 ** New command line option --debug
4121 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
4123 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
4125 ** New help facility
4127 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
4128 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
4129 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
4130 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
4131 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
4132 (help) gives this text
4134 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
4135 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
4137 Examples: (help help)
4139 (help "output-string")
4141 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
4143 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
4145 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
4146 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
4149 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
4150 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
4151 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
4154 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
4155 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
4156 use absolute filenames when possible.
4158 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
4159 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
4160 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
4163 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
4165 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
4166 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
4167 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
4168 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
4170 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
4172 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
4174 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
4175 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
4176 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
4178 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
4179 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
4180 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
4182 (read-enable 'positions)
4183 (debug-enable 'debug)
4185 ** Backtraces in scripts
4187 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
4191 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
4193 at the top of the script.
4195 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
4196 The second enables backtraces.)
4198 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
4200 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
4201 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
4202 substantially faster than before.
4204 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
4205 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
4207 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
4208 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
4210 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
4212 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
4213 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
4214 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
4216 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
4217 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
4218 when this hook is run in the future.
4220 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
4221 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
4223 ** Improvements to garbage collector
4225 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
4226 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
4229 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
4230 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
4231 more and more memory for certain programs.)
4233 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
4234 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
4236 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
4237 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
4239 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
4240 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
4241 in order not to need further allocation.)
4243 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4246 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4247 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4248 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4249 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4251 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4253 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4256 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4258 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4261 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4262 GC in percent of total heap size
4265 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4266 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4268 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4270 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4271 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4273 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4275 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4276 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4278 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4280 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4281 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4285 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4286 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4288 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4290 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4292 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4294 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4296 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4298 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4299 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4301 (simple-format port message . args)
4302 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4303 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4304 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4305 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4306 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4307 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4308 Does not add a trailing newline."
4310 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4312 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
4313 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
4315 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
4316 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
4318 ** Deprecated: list*
4320 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
4322 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
4324 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
4325 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
4327 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
4328 is returned as result.
4330 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
4332 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
4334 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
4336 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
4337 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
4340 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
4342 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
4344 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
4345 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
4347 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4349 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
4351 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
4353 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4355 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
4357 Thanks to Greg Badros!
4359 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4361 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4362 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
4363 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
4365 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
4368 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
4370 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
4371 the readability of argument checking.
4373 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
4375 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
4377 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
4379 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
4380 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
4381 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
4382 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
4383 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
4384 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
4385 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
4387 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
4389 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
4391 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
4392 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
4394 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
4396 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
4397 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
4400 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
4402 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
4403 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
4404 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
4406 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
4407 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
4408 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
4410 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
4411 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
4412 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
4413 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
4414 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
4415 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
4416 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
4418 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
4419 scm_end_input (object);
4420 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
4421 ptob->flush (object);
4423 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
4424 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
4427 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
4429 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
4431 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
4432 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
4433 removed in a future version.
4435 ** The format of error message strings has changed
4437 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
4438 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
4439 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
4440 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
4442 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
4443 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
4445 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
4448 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
4450 in your configure.in.
4452 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
4457 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
4463 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
4465 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
4469 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
4470 (define make-message string-append)
4472 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
4474 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
4478 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
4483 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
4487 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
4489 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
4490 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
4492 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
4494 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
4495 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4496 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4497 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4498 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4499 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4501 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4502 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4503 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4505 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4506 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4507 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4510 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4511 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4512 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4513 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4514 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4516 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4517 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4518 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4519 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4520 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4521 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4522 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4524 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4526 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4527 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4528 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4530 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4531 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4532 KEY in the calling thread.
4534 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4535 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4536 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4537 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4538 associated with the key.
4540 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4542 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4543 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4545 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4547 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4548 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4549 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4551 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4553 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
4554 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
4556 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
4558 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
4560 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
4561 returned is undefined.
4563 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
4564 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
4565 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
4567 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
4568 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
4569 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
4571 ** New C level GC hooks
4573 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
4575 scm_before_gc_c_hook
4578 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
4579 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
4580 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
4582 scm_before_mark_c_hook
4583 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
4584 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
4586 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
4587 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
4590 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
4592 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
4593 allocation parameters
4595 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
4596 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
4597 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
4601 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
4602 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
4603 scm_default_max_segment_size
4605 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
4607 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
4608 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
4610 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
4612 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
4613 object and count on the object being protected until
4614 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
4616 The functions also have better time complexity.
4618 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
4619 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
4620 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
4621 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
4622 are no longer needed.
4624 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
4626 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
4627 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
4628 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
4629 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
4631 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
4633 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
4635 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
4637 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
4638 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
4639 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
4640 until this issue has been settled.
4642 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
4644 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
4646 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
4649 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
4651 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4653 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
4654 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
4655 descriptors were checked.
4657 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
4658 atomically written to a pipe.
4660 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
4661 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
4662 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
4663 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
4664 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
4665 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
4666 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
4669 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
4670 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
4671 is changed without calling tzset.
4673 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
4675 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
4676 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
4677 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
4679 (define write-network-long
4680 (lambda (value port)
4681 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4682 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
4683 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
4685 (define read-network-long
4687 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4688 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
4689 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
4691 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
4692 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
4694 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
4695 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
4696 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
4697 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
4699 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
4700 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
4701 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
4702 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
4706 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
4708 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4712 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
4713 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
4714 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
4720 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
4721 for a description of available commands.
4723 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
4724 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
4725 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
4727 (debug-enable 'backwards)
4729 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
4730 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
4732 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
4734 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
4736 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
4737 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
4738 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
4739 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
4740 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
4741 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
4744 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
4746 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
4747 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
4748 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
4749 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
4751 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
4752 the file and should not be affected by this change.
4754 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
4756 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4758 ** Readline support has changed again.
4760 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
4761 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
4762 to activate readline is now
4764 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
4767 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
4769 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
4770 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
4771 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
4774 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
4775 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
4776 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
4779 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
4780 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
4781 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
4782 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
4783 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
4784 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
4786 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
4787 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
4789 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
4791 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
4792 object it receives is the same string passed to
4793 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
4794 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
4795 string, not the suffix.
4797 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
4798 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
4799 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
4801 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
4803 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
4804 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
4805 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
4806 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
4809 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4811 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
4813 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
4814 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
4815 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
4816 appear from left to right.
4818 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
4821 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
4823 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
4824 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
4826 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4830 *** New function: hook? OBJ
4832 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
4834 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
4836 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
4837 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
4838 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
4840 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
4842 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
4844 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
4846 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
4849 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
4851 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
4852 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
4853 mentioning it here anyway.
4855 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
4857 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
4858 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
4859 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
4860 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
4863 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
4865 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
4867 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
4869 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
4870 otherwise return #f.
4872 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
4874 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
4875 returned by `opendir'.
4877 ** New function: using-readline?
4879 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
4881 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4883 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
4884 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4886 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4888 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4890 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
4891 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
4892 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4894 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
4896 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
4897 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
4899 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
4901 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
4902 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
4903 documentation slots are not yet used.
4905 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
4907 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
4908 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
4909 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
4914 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
4915 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
4916 (string-append x y))
4918 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
4919 can also be used for concatenating strings.
4921 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
4922 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
4923 be made in a clean way.]
4925 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
4927 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4929 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4931 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
4932 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
4934 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4936 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
4938 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4940 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4942 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
4943 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
4944 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
4945 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
4948 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4950 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
4952 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4954 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4956 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
4957 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
4959 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4961 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
4963 Evaluates the body of a special form.
4965 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
4967 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
4968 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
4969 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
4970 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
4971 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
4972 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
4974 This should not make any difference for most users.
4976 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
4978 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
4979 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
4981 *** New functions for applying generic functions
4983 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
4984 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
4985 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
4986 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
4987 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
4989 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
4991 It is now replaced by:
4993 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
4995 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4996 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4998 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5000 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
5001 This might change when we get the new module system.
5003 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
5007 Changes since Guile 1.3:
5009 * Changes to mailing lists
5011 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
5013 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
5016 * Changes to the distribution
5018 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
5020 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
5021 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
5022 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
5023 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
5024 you explicitly specify it.
5026 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
5027 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
5028 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
5029 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
5030 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
5033 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
5034 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
5035 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
5036 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
5038 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
5039 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
5040 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
5043 You can activate the readline support by issuing
5045 (use-modules (readline-activator))
5048 from your ".guile" file, for example.
5050 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5052 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
5053 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
5054 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
5055 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
5057 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
5058 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
5061 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5063 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
5064 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
5065 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
5066 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
5067 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
5068 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
5069 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
5070 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
5082 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
5083 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
5084 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
5085 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
5086 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
5091 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
5092 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
5100 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
5105 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
5106 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
5109 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
5110 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
5111 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
5112 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
5114 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
5116 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
5118 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
5119 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
5121 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
5123 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
5125 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
5126 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
5128 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
5131 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
5133 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
5135 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
5137 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
5139 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
5141 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
5143 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
5144 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
5145 when the hook was created.
5147 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
5148 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
5149 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
5150 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
5151 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
5152 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
5153 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
5154 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
5155 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
5157 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
5158 the dlopen family of functions.
5160 ** New function `provided?'
5162 - Function: provided? FEATURE
5163 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
5164 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
5165 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
5167 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
5169 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
5170 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
5171 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
5172 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5175 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5176 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
5177 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
5178 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
5180 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
5181 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
5182 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
5185 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
5186 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
5187 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
5188 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
5189 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
5190 but with the flag set.
5192 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
5194 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
5195 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
5197 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
5198 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
5199 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
5200 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
5201 available Scheme format implementations.
5203 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
5204 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
5205 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
5206 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
5207 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
5208 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
5209 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
5210 output is to the current error port if available by the
5211 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
5214 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
5215 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
5216 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
5217 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
5218 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
5219 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
5220 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
5221 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
5223 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
5224 be executed at a time.
5227 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
5229 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
5230 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
5231 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
5233 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
5234 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
5235 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
5236 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
5237 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
5238 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
5239 general form of a directive is:
5241 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
5243 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5245 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5247 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5248 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5249 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5252 Any (print as `display' does).
5256 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5260 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5264 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5270 print number sign always.
5273 print comma separated.
5275 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5281 print number sign always.
5284 print comma separated.
5286 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5292 print number sign always.
5295 print comma separated.
5297 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5303 print number sign always.
5306 print comma separated.
5308 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
5313 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
5317 print a number as a Roman numeral.
5320 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
5323 print a number as an ordinal English number.
5326 print a number as a cardinal English number.
5331 prints `y' and `ies'.
5334 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5337 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5342 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
5346 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
5349 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
5350 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
5352 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5355 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
5356 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
5358 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5361 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
5363 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
5365 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5368 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
5370 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
5372 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5375 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
5378 The sign appears before the padding.
5386 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
5388 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
5393 print N page separators.
5403 newline is ignored, white space left.
5406 newline is left, white space ignored.
5411 relative tabulation.
5417 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
5419 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
5422 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
5424 converts by `string-capitalize'.
5427 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
5430 converts by `string-upcase'.
5433 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
5435 jumps N arguments forward.
5438 jumps 1 argument backward.
5441 jumps N arguments backward.
5444 jumps to the 0th argument.
5447 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
5449 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
5450 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
5452 take argument from N.
5455 true test conditional.
5458 if-else-then conditional.
5464 default clause follows.
5467 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
5469 at most N iterations.
5472 args from next arg (a list of lists).
5475 args from the rest of arguments.
5478 args from the rest args (lists).
5489 aborts if N <= M <= K
5491 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5494 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5497 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5503 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5505 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5507 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5508 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5509 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5510 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5511 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5512 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5516 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5520 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5526 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5529 Print a `#\space' character
5531 print N `#\space' characters.
5534 Print a `#\tab' character
5536 print N `#\tab' characters.
5539 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5540 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5541 must be a positive decimal number.
5544 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5545 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5546 be processed by `read'.
5549 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5550 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5551 be processed by `read'.
5554 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
5557 prints format version.
5560 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
5561 and format it accordingly.
5563 *** Configuration Variables
5565 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
5566 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
5567 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
5568 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
5571 format:symbol-case-conv
5572 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
5573 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
5574 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
5575 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
5576 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
5578 format:iobj-case-conv
5579 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
5580 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
5583 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
5586 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
5592 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
5593 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
5594 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
5595 `format' padding style.
5598 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
5599 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
5600 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
5601 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
5605 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
5606 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
5607 directive parameters or modifiers)).
5610 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
5611 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
5612 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
5613 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
5614 parameters or modifiers)).
5617 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
5619 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
5621 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
5622 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
5624 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
5625 string-downcase! functions.
5627 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
5628 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
5630 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
5633 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
5636 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
5637 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
5639 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
5641 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
5642 the symbol had be read by `read'.
5644 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
5645 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
5646 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
5647 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
5648 would if STRING were input.
5650 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
5652 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
5653 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
5654 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
5655 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
5658 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
5660 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
5661 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
5664 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
5666 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
5667 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
5669 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
5670 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
5672 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
5673 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
5674 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
5675 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
5677 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
5678 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
5680 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
5681 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
5682 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
5684 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
5685 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
5687 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
5688 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
5689 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
5690 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
5691 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
5693 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
5694 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
5695 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
5696 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
5697 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
5698 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
5700 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
5701 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
5702 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
5705 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
5706 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
5707 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
5708 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
5709 the following grammar:
5710 ((apples (single-char #\a))
5711 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
5712 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
5713 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
5714 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
5715 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
5716 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
5717 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
5718 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
5719 last option in its combination)
5721 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
5722 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
5723 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
5724 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
5726 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
5727 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
5728 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
5730 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5731 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5732 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
5734 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
5735 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
5736 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
5737 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
5738 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
5739 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
5740 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
5741 ordinary argument strings.
5743 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
5744 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
5745 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
5746 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
5748 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
5749 as a list, associated with the empty list.
5751 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
5752 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
5753 - a required option is omitted
5754 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
5755 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
5756 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
5757 - an option predicate fails
5762 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
5765 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
5766 (verbose (required? #f)
5769 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
5770 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
5771 (predicate ,string?))))
5773 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
5774 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5776 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5777 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
5778 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
5779 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
5782 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
5784 It will be removed in a few releases.
5786 ** New syntax: lambda*
5787 ** New syntax: define*
5788 ** New syntax: define*-public
5789 ** New syntax: defmacro*
5790 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
5791 Guile now supports optional arguments.
5793 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
5794 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
5795 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
5796 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
5797 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
5799 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
5800 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
5801 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
5803 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
5805 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
5806 and examples for `lambda*':
5809 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
5811 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
5812 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
5813 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
5814 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
5815 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
5816 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
5817 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
5818 can be checked with the bound? macro.
5820 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
5822 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
5823 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
5824 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
5825 are given as keywords are bound to values.
5827 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
5828 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
5829 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
5830 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
5831 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
5832 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
5833 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
5834 and until the procedure is called.
5836 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
5838 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
5839 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
5840 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
5841 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
5842 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
5843 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
5844 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
5845 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
5846 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
5847 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
5849 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
5850 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
5851 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
5852 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
5855 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
5857 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
5858 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
5859 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
5860 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
5862 ** New syntax: and-let*
5863 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
5865 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
5866 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
5867 (<variable> <expression>)
5870 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
5871 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
5872 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
5875 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
5876 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
5877 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
5878 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
5879 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
5880 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
5881 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
5883 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
5884 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
5885 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
5886 shadow earlier bindings.
5888 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
5890 ** New sorting functions
5892 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
5893 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
5894 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
5895 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
5897 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
5898 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
5901 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5902 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
5903 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
5905 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
5906 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
5907 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
5908 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
5910 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5911 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
5912 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
5913 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
5914 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
5917 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5918 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
5919 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
5920 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
5921 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
5922 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
5924 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
5925 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
5926 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
5928 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5929 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
5930 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
5933 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
5934 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
5935 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
5937 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
5938 Added for compatibility with scsh.
5940 ** New built-in random number support
5942 *** New function: random N [STATE]
5943 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
5944 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
5945 returned have a uniform distribution.
5947 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
5948 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
5949 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
5950 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
5951 effect of the `random' operation.
5953 *** New variable: *random-state*
5954 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
5955 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
5956 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
5957 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
5958 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
5961 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
5962 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5963 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5964 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
5965 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
5967 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
5968 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5969 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5970 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
5971 initialized using SEED.
5973 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
5974 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
5975 range between 0 and 1.
5977 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5978 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
5979 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
5980 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
5981 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
5982 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
5983 or a uniform vector of doubles.
5985 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5986 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
5987 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
5988 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
5989 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
5990 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5992 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
5993 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
5994 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
5995 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
5997 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
5998 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
5999 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
6000 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6002 *** New function: random:exp STATE
6003 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
6004 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
6006 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
6008 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
6011 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
6012 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
6015 ** New function: make-guardian
6016 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
6017 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
6018 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
6019 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
6020 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
6022 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
6023 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
6024 one object if at all.
6026 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
6027 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
6028 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
6030 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
6031 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
6032 read again in last-in first-out order.
6034 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
6035 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
6037 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
6039 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
6040 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
6041 file position is used.
6043 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
6044 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
6045 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
6047 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
6048 redefined using seek.
6050 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
6051 size is not supplied.
6053 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
6054 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
6056 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
6057 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
6059 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
6061 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
6062 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
6063 and returns the contents as a single string.
6065 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
6066 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
6067 lists in serial order.
6069 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
6070 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
6071 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
6073 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
6074 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
6075 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
6076 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
6078 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
6079 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
6080 and #f if an error occured.
6082 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
6084 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
6085 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
6086 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
6087 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
6089 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
6091 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
6094 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
6096 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
6099 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6103 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
6104 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
6106 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
6107 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
6111 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6113 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
6115 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6116 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6118 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6120 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
6121 might change when we get the new module system.
6123 ** The smob interface
6125 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
6126 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
6128 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
6130 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
6134 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
6135 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
6136 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
6137 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
6138 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
6139 will be freed by the default free function.
6141 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6142 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
6143 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6144 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6146 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6147 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
6148 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6149 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6151 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
6153 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
6154 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
6158 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
6159 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6160 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6162 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
6163 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
6164 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6165 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6167 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
6168 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
6169 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
6171 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
6172 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
6173 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
6174 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
6176 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
6177 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
6178 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
6180 *** scm_newptob has been removed
6184 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
6186 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
6187 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
6188 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
6190 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
6191 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
6192 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
6194 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
6195 a string port's buffer.
6197 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
6198 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
6199 function pointers which together define the current random number
6200 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
6201 number library functions.
6203 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
6206 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
6207 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
6210 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
6211 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6213 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
6214 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
6216 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
6217 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
6220 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
6221 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
6222 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
6223 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
6225 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
6226 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
6227 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
6228 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
6229 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
6230 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
6231 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
6233 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
6234 by libguile and the application.
6236 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6237 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6238 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
6239 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
6241 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
6242 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
6244 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6245 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6246 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6248 ** Random number library functions
6249 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6250 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6251 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6253 The default random state is stored in:
6255 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6256 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6257 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6262 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6264 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6265 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6266 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6267 isn't a random state.
6269 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6270 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6272 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6273 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6274 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6275 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6277 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6278 Return 32 random bits.
6280 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6281 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6283 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6284 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6286 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6287 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6289 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6290 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6292 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6293 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6294 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6298 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6300 * Changes to the distribution
6302 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6303 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6304 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6307 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6308 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6309 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6311 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6312 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
6313 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
6314 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
6317 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
6318 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
6319 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
6321 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6323 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
6325 *** Function: batch-mode?
6327 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
6330 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
6332 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
6333 case has not been implemented.
6335 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
6336 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
6337 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
6340 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
6341 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
6343 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
6345 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6347 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
6349 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
6350 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
6353 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
6354 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
6355 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
6356 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
6359 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
6361 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
6362 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
6363 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
6364 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
6365 find those libraries.
6367 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
6368 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
6371 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
6373 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
6374 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
6375 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
6376 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
6378 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
6379 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
6380 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
6384 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
6386 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
6387 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
6388 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
6391 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
6392 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
6393 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
6394 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
6396 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
6397 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
6400 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
6401 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
6402 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
6403 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
6404 compiler where to find the libraries.
6406 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
6407 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
6408 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
6410 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
6411 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
6412 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
6413 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
6414 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
6418 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6420 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
6421 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
6422 internationalization support.
6424 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
6425 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
6426 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
6427 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
6428 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
6430 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
6431 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
6432 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
6433 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
6434 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
6436 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
6437 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
6438 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
6439 any GNU mirror site.
6441 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
6443 ** New function: add-history STRING
6444 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
6445 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
6446 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
6448 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
6450 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
6451 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
6452 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
6455 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
6456 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
6457 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
6459 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
6461 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
6464 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
6465 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
6468 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
6469 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
6470 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
6471 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
6472 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
6473 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
6475 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
6476 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
6477 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
6478 of the form mentioned above.
6480 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
6481 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
6482 returned in the special `rest' list.
6484 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
6485 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
6487 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
6489 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
6491 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
6493 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
6494 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
6495 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6496 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6497 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6498 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6499 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6500 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6503 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6505 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6507 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6508 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6511 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6512 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6513 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6517 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6518 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6519 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6520 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6521 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6522 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6523 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6524 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6527 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6529 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6530 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6531 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6533 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6535 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6536 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6538 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6539 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6540 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6542 Why do we have this function?
6543 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6544 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6545 primitive, and display it differently, and
6546 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6547 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6550 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6551 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
6554 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
6555 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
6556 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
6557 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
6559 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
6560 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
6563 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
6564 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
6566 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
6568 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
6569 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
6570 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
6571 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
6572 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
6573 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
6574 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
6577 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
6579 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
6580 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
6582 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
6583 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
6584 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
6585 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
6586 properly continue the print chain.
6588 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
6589 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
6590 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
6591 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
6592 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
6593 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
6594 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
6595 print-state, it is simply ignored.
6597 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
6598 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
6599 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
6600 safest to not check for these pairs.
6602 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
6603 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
6604 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
6605 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
6607 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
6609 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
6610 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
6612 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
6614 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
6616 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
6617 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
6618 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
6620 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
6621 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
6622 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
6624 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
6625 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
6626 the following functions and macros:
6628 Function: make-fluid
6630 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
6631 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
6632 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
6633 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
6634 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
6636 Function: fluid? OBJ
6638 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
6640 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
6641 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
6643 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
6644 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
6646 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
6648 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
6649 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
6650 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
6651 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
6652 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
6653 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
6654 modified by `with-fluids*'.
6656 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
6658 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
6659 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
6660 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
6661 should evaluate to a fluid.
6663 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
6665 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
6666 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
6667 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
6668 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
6669 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
6671 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
6674 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
6676 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
6678 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
6680 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
6683 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
6684 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
6685 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
6686 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
6687 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
6690 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
6691 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
6692 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
6694 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
6695 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
6696 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
6698 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
6699 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
6700 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6701 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
6703 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
6704 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
6705 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6706 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
6708 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
6709 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
6710 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
6711 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
6713 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
6714 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
6715 their revealed counts set to zero.
6717 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6718 Returns an integer file descriptor.
6720 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6721 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
6723 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6724 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
6726 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6727 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
6728 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
6730 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
6731 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
6732 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
6734 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
6735 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
6736 default environment inherited by child processes.
6738 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
6739 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
6740 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
6742 The return value is unspecified.
6744 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
6745 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
6746 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
6747 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
6748 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
6750 The return value is unspecified.
6752 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
6753 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
6761 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
6762 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
6765 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
6768 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
6769 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
6770 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
6772 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
6773 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
6774 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
6775 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
6778 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
6779 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
6781 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
6782 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
6783 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
6784 the `environ' procedure.
6786 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
6787 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
6790 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
6791 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
6793 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
6794 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
6795 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
6796 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
6798 *** procedure: times
6799 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
6800 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
6801 return a selected component:
6804 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
6808 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
6811 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
6815 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
6816 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
6820 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
6821 terminated child processes.
6823 ** Removed: list-length
6824 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
6825 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
6827 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
6829 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
6831 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
6833 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
6834 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
6835 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
6836 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
6838 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
6839 extra complexity it introduces.
6841 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
6842 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
6844 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
6845 variable to any non-empty value.
6847 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
6848 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
6850 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6852 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
6853 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
6855 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
6857 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
6858 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
6860 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
6862 ** vector handling routines
6864 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
6865 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
6866 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
6867 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
6868 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
6870 ** pair and list routines
6872 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
6875 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
6877 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
6880 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6882 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
6884 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
6885 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
6886 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
6887 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
6888 site-specific initialization code.
6890 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
6891 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
6892 initialization processes.
6894 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
6895 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
6896 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
6897 initialized properly.
6899 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
6900 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
6901 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
6903 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
6904 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
6905 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
6906 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
6907 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
6909 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
6911 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
6912 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
6913 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
6914 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
6915 objects the smob refers to get marked.
6917 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
6918 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
6919 which look like this:
6922 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
6924 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
6925 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
6928 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
6929 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
6932 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
6934 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
6935 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
6936 you will need to change your functions slightly.
6938 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
6939 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
6940 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
6941 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
6942 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
6944 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
6945 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
6947 int (*free) (SCM port);
6948 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
6949 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
6950 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
6954 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
6955 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
6956 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
6958 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
6961 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
6962 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
6963 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
6965 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
6966 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
6967 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
6970 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
6974 struct timeval *timeout);
6976 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
6977 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
6978 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
6979 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
6980 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
6981 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
6983 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
6984 scm_catch_body_t body,
6986 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6989 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
6990 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
6991 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
6992 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
6993 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
6994 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
6996 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
6998 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7001 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
7002 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
7003 spawning threads from application C code.
7005 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
7006 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
7007 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
7008 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
7009 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
7010 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
7012 ** Removed functions:
7014 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
7015 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
7017 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
7019 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
7020 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
7022 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
7024 ** mbstrings are now removed
7026 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
7027 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
7029 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
7031 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
7032 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
7033 their new names and arguments:
7035 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
7036 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
7037 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
7038 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
7041 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
7043 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
7045 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
7048 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
7050 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
7051 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
7052 pass a #f arg to catch.
7054 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
7056 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
7057 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
7060 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
7061 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
7062 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
7063 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
7064 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
7065 reclaim its storage.
7067 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
7068 worrying that some other function you call will call
7069 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
7070 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
7071 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
7072 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
7075 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
7077 * Changes to the distribution
7079 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
7080 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
7083 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
7084 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
7086 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7087 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7089 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
7091 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
7092 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
7093 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
7095 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7097 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
7098 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
7099 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
7100 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
7101 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
7102 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
7104 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
7105 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
7106 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
7109 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
7110 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
7111 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
7112 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
7114 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
7115 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
7116 libraries to your link command:
7118 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
7119 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
7120 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7121 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7123 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
7124 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
7125 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
7127 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7129 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
7130 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
7133 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
7135 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
7136 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
7137 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
7138 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
7139 searched is system dependent.
7141 (dynamic-object? VAL)
7143 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
7145 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
7147 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
7148 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
7150 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7152 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
7153 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
7154 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
7155 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
7156 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
7159 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7161 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
7162 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
7163 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
7164 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
7165 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
7167 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
7169 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
7170 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
7172 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
7174 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
7175 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
7176 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
7179 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
7181 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
7182 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
7183 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
7184 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
7186 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
7187 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
7189 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
7191 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
7192 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
7194 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
7196 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
7197 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
7205 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
7207 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
7208 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
7209 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
7210 a more informative way.
7212 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
7213 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
7214 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
7215 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
7216 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
7217 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
7219 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
7220 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
7223 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
7224 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
7225 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
7228 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
7229 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
7230 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
7231 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
7232 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
7233 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
7235 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
7236 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
7237 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
7238 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
7241 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
7242 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
7243 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
7244 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7245 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7246 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7248 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7249 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7250 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7251 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7252 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7254 *** regexp functions
7256 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7257 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7258 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7260 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7261 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7262 with SCSH regular expressions.
7264 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7265 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7266 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7267 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7269 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7270 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7271 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7272 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7274 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7275 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7276 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7277 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7278 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7279 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7281 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7282 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7283 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7284 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7285 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7287 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7289 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7290 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7291 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7292 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7294 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7295 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7296 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7298 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7299 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7301 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7304 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7305 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7306 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7308 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7309 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7310 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7312 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
7313 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
7314 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
7315 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
7316 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
7319 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7321 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
7322 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
7323 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
7324 used when different portions of a string are passed to
7325 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
7326 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
7328 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
7329 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
7330 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
7332 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
7333 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
7336 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
7337 and replace them with the contents of another string.
7339 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
7340 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
7341 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
7342 may be one of the following arguments:
7344 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
7346 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
7348 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
7349 the regexp match is written.
7351 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
7352 following the regexp match is written.
7354 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
7355 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
7358 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
7359 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
7360 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
7361 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
7362 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
7363 which should be matched against this regular expression.
7365 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
7368 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
7369 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
7370 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
7371 written out to PORT.
7373 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
7374 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
7375 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
7376 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
7377 will return after processing a single match.
7379 *** Match Structures
7381 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
7382 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
7383 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
7384 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
7385 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
7386 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
7389 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
7390 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
7391 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
7392 information about the original target string that was matched against a
7393 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
7395 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
7396 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
7397 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
7399 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
7400 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
7401 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
7402 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
7403 number N did not match, return `#f'.
7405 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
7406 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
7408 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
7409 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
7411 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
7412 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
7414 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
7415 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
7417 **** Function: match:count MATCH
7418 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
7419 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
7420 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
7422 **** Function: match:string MATCH
7423 Return the original TARGET string.
7425 *** Backslash Escapes
7427 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
7428 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
7429 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
7430 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
7431 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
7432 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
7434 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
7435 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
7436 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
7437 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
7438 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
7439 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
7440 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
7441 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
7443 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
7444 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
7445 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
7446 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
7447 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
7448 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
7449 each match a single backslash in the target string.
7451 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
7452 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
7453 return the resulting string.
7455 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
7456 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
7457 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
7458 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
7459 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
7460 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
7461 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
7462 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
7463 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
7464 translated to the single character `*'.
7466 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
7467 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
7468 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
7469 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
7470 consecutive backslashes:
7472 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
7474 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
7475 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
7476 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
7478 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
7479 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
7480 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
7481 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
7482 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
7483 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
7485 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
7487 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
7488 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
7489 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
7490 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
7491 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
7492 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
7493 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
7494 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
7495 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7496 cumbersome escape syntax.
7498 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7500 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7502 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7504 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7507 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7509 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7511 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7514 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7515 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7516 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7517 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7518 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7520 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7521 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7522 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7523 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7524 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7525 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7526 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7529 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7530 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7531 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7534 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7535 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7537 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7538 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7539 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7540 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7541 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7542 installed, you can say:
7544 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7547 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7549 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7550 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7551 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7552 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7553 new dynamic roots and threads.
7556 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
7558 * Changes to the distribution.
7560 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
7562 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
7563 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
7564 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
7565 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
7566 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
7567 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
7568 programming language. These are packaged together because the
7569 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
7571 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
7574 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
7575 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
7580 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7582 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
7583 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
7585 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
7586 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
7587 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
7588 the (command-line) function.
7589 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
7590 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
7591 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
7593 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
7594 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
7595 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
7596 command line arguments
7597 -ds do -s script at this point
7598 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
7599 -h, --help display this help and exit
7600 -v, --version display version information and exit
7601 \ read arguments from following script lines
7603 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
7604 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
7606 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7609 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7613 (main (command-line))
7615 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
7617 ekko a speckled gecko
7619 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
7620 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
7621 following list of command-line arguments:
7623 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
7625 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
7626 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
7627 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
7628 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
7629 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7631 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
7633 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
7635 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
7636 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
7639 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
7640 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
7641 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
7642 SCSH) for circumventing them.
7644 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
7645 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
7646 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
7647 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
7649 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
7653 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7657 If the user invokes this script as follows:
7659 ekko a speckled gecko
7661 Unix expands this into
7663 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
7665 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
7666 read from the second line of the script, producing:
7668 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7670 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
7671 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7673 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
7674 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
7675 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
7676 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
7677 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
7678 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
7679 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
7680 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
7681 it only terminates the argument list.)
7682 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
7683 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
7684 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
7685 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
7686 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
7687 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
7688 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
7689 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
7691 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7693 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
7694 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
7695 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
7696 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
7697 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
7699 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
7700 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
7701 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
7703 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
7705 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
7706 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
7707 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
7708 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
7711 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
7712 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7713 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7715 * Changes to Scheme functions
7717 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
7718 and disabled by default.
7720 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
7721 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
7722 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
7723 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
7725 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
7727 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
7729 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
7730 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
7732 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
7733 (read-set! keywords #f)
7735 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
7736 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
7737 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
7740 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
7741 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
7742 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
7745 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
7746 support for Scheme functions.
7748 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7749 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
7750 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
7751 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
7754 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7755 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
7756 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
7759 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
7760 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
7761 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
7764 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
7765 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
7766 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
7767 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
7768 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
7769 display the result as a prompt.
7770 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
7772 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
7773 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
7774 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
7777 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
7778 procedure of zero arguments.
7780 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
7781 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
7782 argument is bound in the current module.
7784 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
7785 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
7786 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
7787 public bindings into the current module.
7789 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
7790 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
7792 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
7793 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
7795 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
7796 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
7798 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
7799 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
7801 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
7802 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
7804 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
7805 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
7806 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
7807 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
7808 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
7810 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
7811 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
7812 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
7813 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
7815 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
7818 ** Changes to I/O functions
7820 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
7821 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
7822 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
7824 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
7825 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
7826 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
7828 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
7829 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
7831 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
7832 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
7833 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
7834 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
7836 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
7838 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
7839 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
7841 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
7842 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
7843 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
7844 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
7845 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
7848 'trim omit delimiter from result
7849 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
7850 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
7851 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
7853 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
7855 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
7856 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
7858 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
7859 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
7860 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
7861 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
7862 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
7864 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
7865 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
7866 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
7868 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
7869 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
7870 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
7871 above, and defaults to 'peek.
7873 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
7874 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7876 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
7877 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
7879 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
7881 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
7882 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
7883 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
7884 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
7885 a delimiting character.
7886 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
7888 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
7889 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
7890 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
7891 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
7892 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
7893 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
7895 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
7896 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7898 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
7899 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
7900 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
7902 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
7903 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
7904 the array to read and write.
7906 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
7907 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
7910 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
7912 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
7915 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
7916 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
7917 Values for COMMAND are:
7919 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
7920 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
7921 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
7922 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
7923 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
7924 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
7925 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
7926 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
7928 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
7930 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
7931 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
7932 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
7933 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
7934 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
7935 corresponding return set will be the same.
7937 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
7940 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
7941 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
7942 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
7943 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
7944 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
7945 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
7946 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
7947 special file being created.
7949 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
7950 clashing with various SCSH forks.
7952 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
7953 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
7954 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
7955 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
7956 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
7957 and originating address.
7959 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
7960 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
7961 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
7963 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
7966 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
7967 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
7970 (status:exit-val STATUS)
7971 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
7972 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
7973 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
7974 this function returns #f.
7976 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
7977 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
7978 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
7981 (status:term-sig STATUS)
7982 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
7983 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
7986 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
7987 a valid STATUS value.
7989 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
7991 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
7992 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
7994 Component Accessor Setter
7995 ========================= ============ ============
7996 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
7997 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
7998 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
7999 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
8000 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
8001 year tm:year set-tm:year
8002 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
8003 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
8004 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
8005 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
8006 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
8008 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
8009 describing the host system:
8012 ============================================== ================
8013 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
8014 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
8015 release level of the operating system utsname:release
8016 version level of the operating system utsname:version
8017 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
8019 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
8020 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
8021 system's user database:
8024 ====================== =================
8025 user name passwd:name
8026 user password passwd:passwd
8029 real name passwd:gecos
8030 home directory passwd:dir
8031 shell program passwd:shell
8033 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
8034 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
8035 system's group database:
8038 ======================= ============
8039 group name group:name
8040 group password group:passwd
8042 group members group:mem
8044 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
8045 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
8049 ========================= ===============
8050 official name of host hostent:name
8051 alias list hostent:aliases
8052 host address type hostent:addrtype
8053 length of address hostent:length
8054 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
8056 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
8057 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
8061 ========================= ===============
8062 official name of net netent:name
8063 alias list netent:aliases
8064 net number type netent:addrtype
8065 net number netent:net
8067 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
8068 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
8072 ========================= ===============
8073 official protocol name protoent:name
8074 alias list protoent:aliases
8075 protocol number protoent:proto
8077 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
8078 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
8082 ========================= ===============
8083 official service name servent:name
8084 alias list servent:aliases
8085 port number servent:port
8086 protocol to use servent:proto
8088 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
8089 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
8092 ======================================== ===============
8093 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
8094 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
8095 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
8096 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
8098 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
8099 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
8100 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
8102 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
8103 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
8105 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
8106 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
8108 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
8109 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
8111 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
8113 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
8115 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
8116 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
8117 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
8119 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
8120 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
8121 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
8122 return the remaining characters as a string.
8124 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
8125 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
8126 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
8128 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
8130 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8132 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
8135 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
8138 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
8139 and returns the array
8141 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
8142 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
8143 the user to interpret the data both ways.
8145 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8147 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
8148 symbol's value from C code:
8150 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
8151 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
8152 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
8153 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
8155 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
8156 without assigning them a value.
8158 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
8159 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
8160 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
8162 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
8163 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
8164 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
8166 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
8167 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
8169 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
8170 doesn't actually care about that.
8172 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
8173 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
8174 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
8176 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
8177 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
8178 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
8179 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
8180 which we have just created and initialized.
8182 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
8183 should one occur. We call it like this:
8184 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
8186 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
8187 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
8188 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
8189 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
8190 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
8191 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
8194 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
8195 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
8196 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
8197 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
8198 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
8199 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
8200 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
8203 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
8204 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
8205 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
8206 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
8207 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
8210 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
8211 scm_internal_catch, except:
8213 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
8214 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
8215 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
8216 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
8219 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
8220 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
8221 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
8223 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
8224 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
8225 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
8226 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
8229 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
8230 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
8231 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
8233 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
8234 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
8235 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
8236 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
8237 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
8239 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
8240 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
8241 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
8243 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
8244 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8245 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8247 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8248 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8250 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8251 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8252 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8255 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8256 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8257 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8258 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8259 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8260 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8261 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8264 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8265 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8267 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8268 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8269 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8270 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8271 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8274 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8275 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8277 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8278 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8281 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8282 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8284 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8287 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8288 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8289 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8290 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8291 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8292 given the following arguments:
8294 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8296 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8298 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8300 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8303 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8304 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8305 command-line arguments.
8307 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8308 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8309 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8310 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8311 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8312 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
8315 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8318 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
8319 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
8321 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
8322 rearranged slightly. They are now:
8324 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8325 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8326 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
8327 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
8329 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8330 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8332 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8333 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
8334 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8335 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
8337 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8338 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8340 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
8341 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
8343 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
8345 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
8346 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
8347 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
8350 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
8351 returns a port instead of an FD object.
8353 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
8354 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
8359 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
8362 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
8364 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
8365 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
8366 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
8367 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
8369 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
8371 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
8373 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
8374 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
8375 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
8376 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
8377 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
8378 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
8379 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
8380 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
8381 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
8382 for more information.
8384 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
8385 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
8387 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
8388 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
8389 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
8390 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
8391 following two lines at the top of the file:
8393 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8396 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
8397 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
8398 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
8400 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
8402 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8404 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
8407 (display (car args))
8408 (if (pair? (cdr args))
8410 (loop (cdr args)))))
8413 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
8414 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
8415 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
8416 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
8417 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
8418 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
8422 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
8425 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
8428 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
8430 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
8431 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
8432 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
8433 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
8434 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
8437 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
8438 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
8439 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
8440 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
8441 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
8444 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
8447 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
8448 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
8449 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
8452 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
8453 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
8454 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
8456 to see a backtrace, and
8457 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
8458 to see them by default.
8462 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
8464 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
8466 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
8467 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
8470 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
8471 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
8472 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
8473 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
8476 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
8477 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
8478 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
8479 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
8480 functions which inspired them.
8482 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
8483 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
8487 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
8489 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
8491 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
8492 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
8495 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8496 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8497 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8499 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8500 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8501 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8502 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8503 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8505 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8507 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8508 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8509 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8512 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8515 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8517 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8518 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8519 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8520 above should serve their purposes.
8522 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8523 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8524 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8525 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8527 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8530 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8531 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8532 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8533 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8535 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8536 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8537 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8538 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8540 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8541 for the `read' function.
8544 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8545 to that of `integer?'.
8547 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8548 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8550 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8551 it simply returns the object's property list.
8553 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
8554 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
8555 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
8556 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
8558 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
8560 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
8563 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
8565 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
8566 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
8568 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
8570 void (*main_func) (),
8573 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
8574 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
8575 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
8576 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
8577 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
8579 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
8580 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
8581 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
8582 know which arguments have been processed.
8584 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
8585 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
8586 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
8587 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
8588 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
8590 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
8591 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
8592 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
8593 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
8594 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
8595 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
8596 people from making that mistake.
8598 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
8599 convenient ways to override these when desired.
8601 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
8603 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
8607 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
8610 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
8611 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
8612 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
8613 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
8616 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
8617 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
8618 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
8619 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
8622 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
8623 have been added to the Guile library.
8625 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
8626 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
8627 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
8630 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
8631 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
8632 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
8634 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
8635 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
8636 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
8637 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
8638 argument from the list.
8641 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
8644 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
8645 null-terminated string, and returns it.
8647 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
8648 to a Scheme port object.
8650 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
8651 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
8656 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
8658 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
8659 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
8660 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
8661 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
8662 code as a special datatype.
8664 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
8665 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
8666 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
8667 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
8668 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
8671 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
8672 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
8673 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
8674 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
8675 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
8677 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
8680 Copyright information:
8682 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8684 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8685 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8686 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8687 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8689 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8690 of this document, or of portions of it,
8691 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8692 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8697 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"