1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Changes since Guile 1.4:
9 * Changes to the distribution
11 ** Guile now using versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
13 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
14 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
15 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
16 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
17 indicate major changes in Guile.
19 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
20 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
21 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
22 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
24 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
25 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
26 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
27 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
30 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
32 ** As per RELEASE directions, deprecated items have been removed
36 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
37 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
39 *** C Functions removed
41 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
42 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
43 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
44 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
45 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
46 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
47 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
49 *** scheme functions removed:
52 fseek - replaced by seek.
53 list* - replaced by cons*.
55 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
57 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
60 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
62 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
63 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
64 open-output-string, get-output-string.
66 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
68 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
70 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
73 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
75 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
77 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
79 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
80 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
83 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
85 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
87 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
88 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
97 See README there for more info.
99 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
100 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
103 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
105 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
107 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
109 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
110 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
111 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
113 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
115 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
116 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
117 to be named `and-let*', of course.
119 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
120 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
122 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
127 (oop goops active-slot)
128 (oop goops composite-slot)
130 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
131 integrated into Guile.
135 (use-modules (oop goops))
137 access GOOPS bindings.
139 We're now ready to try some basic GOOPS functionality.
143 (define-method (+ (x <string>) (y <string>))
147 (+ "abc" "de") --> "abcde"
151 (define-class <2D-vector> ()
152 (x #:init-value 0 #:accessor x-component #:init-keyword #:x)
153 (y #:init-value 0 #:accessor y-component #:init-keyword #:y))
155 (define-method write ((obj <2D-vector>) port)
156 (display (format #f "<~S, ~S>" (x-component obj) (y-component obj))
159 (define v (make <2D-vector> #:x 3 #:y 4))
162 (define-method + ((x <2D-vector>) (y <2D-vector>))
164 #:x (+ (x-component x) (x-component y))
165 #:y (+ (y-component x) (y-component y))))
169 Asking for the type of an object
171 (class-of v) --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
172 <2D-vector> --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
173 (class-of 1) --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
174 <integer> --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
176 (is-a? v <2D-vector>) --> #t
178 See further in the GOOPS manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory,
179 in info (goops.info) and texinfo formats.
181 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
183 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
184 in the default environment:
186 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
187 %read-line write-line
189 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
190 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
192 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
194 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
197 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
198 can be used for similar functionality.
200 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
202 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
203 it defines a single procedure:
205 ** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
207 Read characters from an fport or file descriptor into a string
208 STR. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
209 large strings. It will:
211 * attempt to fill the entire string, unless the START and/or
212 END arguments are supplied. i.e., START defaults to 0 and
213 END defaults to `(string-length str)'
215 * use the current input port if PORT_OR_FDES is not supplied.
217 * read any characters that are currently available, without
218 waiting for the rest (short reads are possible).
220 * wait for as long as it needs to for the first character to
221 become available, unless the port is in non-blocking mode
223 * return `#f' if end-of-file is encountered before reading any
224 characters, otherwise return the number of characters read.
226 * return 0 if the port is in non-blocking mode and no characters
227 are immediately available.
229 * return 0 if the request is for 0 bytes, with no end-of-file
232 ** New module (ice-9 match)
234 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher:
236 (use-modules (ice-9 match))
240 (('+ x y) `(add ,x ,y))
241 (('- x y) `(sub ,x ,y))) => (add 1 2)
243 See ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
244 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html for complete documentation.
246 This module requires SLIB to be installed and available from Guile.
248 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
250 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
251 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
252 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
253 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
255 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
256 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
260 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
261 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
262 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
265 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
268 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
269 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
271 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
272 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
275 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
278 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
280 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
282 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
284 Previously, you could for example write (cons 1 ()); now you need to
285 be more explicit and write (cons 1 '()).
287 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
291 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
292 (define m (make-safe-module))
293 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
294 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
295 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
297 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
299 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
300 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
301 Scheme programs easier.
303 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
304 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
305 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
306 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
307 `cond-expand' when using this option.
310 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
311 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
313 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
317 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
319 ** The empty combination is no longer valid syntax.
321 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
322 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
323 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
325 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
327 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
328 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
329 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
330 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
333 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported.
334 What you should do instead now is to write a small Scheme file that
335 explicitly calls `dynamic-link' to load the shared library and
336 `dynamic-call' to initialize it.
338 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
339 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
341 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
343 (define-module (foo bar))
345 (dynamic-call "foobar_init" (dynamic-link "libguile-foo-bar"))
347 The file name passed to `dynamic-link' should not contain an
348 extension. It will be provided automatically.
350 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
352 The function `eval' will now save and restore the current module
353 around the evaluation of the specified expression. While this
354 expression is evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right
355 module, which is the module specified as the second argument to
358 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularily
359 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
360 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
361 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
362 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
363 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
364 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
365 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
366 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
367 one eval to the next.
369 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
370 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
371 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
372 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
373 subforms are at the top-level as well.
375 To prevent strange behaviour, the forms `define-module',
376 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
377 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
378 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
379 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
380 used in a lexical environment.
382 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
384 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
385 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
386 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
388 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
390 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
391 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
392 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
394 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
395 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
396 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
397 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
399 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
401 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
402 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
404 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
405 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
406 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
407 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
408 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
411 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
412 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
413 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
414 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
415 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
416 successful and #f if it wasn't.
418 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
419 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
420 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
421 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
422 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
424 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
425 objects are usually permanent.
427 ** Escape procedures created by call-with-current-continuation now
428 accept any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
430 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
432 This function is used to displaying the deprecation messages that are
433 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
436 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
440 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
445 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
447 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
448 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
449 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
450 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
452 ** New function `make-object-property'
454 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
455 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
459 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
460 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
464 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
465 source properties eventually.
467 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
469 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
470 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
471 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
473 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
474 will be removed in the next release.
476 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
478 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
479 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
481 (scheme-report-environment 5)
483 (interaction-environment)
489 ** New define-module option: pure
491 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
496 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
499 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
501 Export names NAME1 ...
503 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
504 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
510 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
513 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
518 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
520 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
522 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
523 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
525 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
527 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
530 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
532 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
534 ** New function: object->string OBJ
536 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
538 ** New function: port? X
540 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
541 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
543 ** New function: file-port?
545 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
547 ** New function: port-for-each proc
549 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The
550 return value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied
551 exactly once to every port that exists in the system at the time
552 PORT-FOR-EACH is invoked. Changes to the port table while
553 PORT-FOR-EACH is running have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is
556 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
558 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
559 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
560 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
561 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
562 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
565 ** New function: close-fdes fd
567 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
568 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
569 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
570 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
573 ** New function: crypt password salt
575 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
578 ** New function: chroot path
580 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
582 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
584 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
587 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
589 Get or set the priority of the running process.
591 ** New function: getpass prompt
593 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
596 ** New function: flock file operation
598 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
600 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
602 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
605 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
607 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
608 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
609 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
610 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
611 of the temporary file.
613 ** New function: open-input-string string
615 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
616 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
617 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
619 ** New function: open-output-string
621 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
622 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
624 ** New function: get-output-string
626 Return the contents of an output string port.
628 ** New function: identity
632 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
633 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
635 ** New function: inet-pton family address
637 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note
638 that unlike the C version of this function, the result is an
639 integer with normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET'
641 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
642 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
644 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
646 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note
647 that unlike the C version of this function, the input is an
648 integer with normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET'
650 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
651 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
652 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
656 Use `identity' instead.
662 ** Deprecated: return-it
666 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
668 Use `string-length' instead.
672 Use `logior' instead.
674 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
676 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
677 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
678 port-for-each is more flexible.
680 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
681 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
682 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
684 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
686 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
688 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
690 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
692 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
694 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
695 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
697 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
698 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
700 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
701 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
703 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
705 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
706 Removed function: builtin-bindings
708 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
709 Use module system operations for all variables.
711 * Changes to the gh_ interface
713 * Changes to the scm_ interface
715 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
717 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
718 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
719 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
721 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
723 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
725 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
726 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
727 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
730 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
732 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
734 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
735 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
737 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
739 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
740 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
741 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
742 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
744 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
745 scm_primitive_property_ref
746 scm_primitive_property_set_x
747 scm_primitive_property_del_x
749 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
750 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
752 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
754 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
755 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
756 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
757 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
759 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
761 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
762 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
763 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
764 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
765 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
766 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
767 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
769 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
770 scm_remember_upto_here
772 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
774 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
776 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
777 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
779 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
781 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
783 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
785 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
787 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
789 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
790 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
791 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
792 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
793 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
794 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
796 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
798 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
800 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
801 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
802 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
804 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
806 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
807 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
808 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
810 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
812 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
813 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
816 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
819 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
820 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
823 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
825 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
827 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
829 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
831 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
833 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
835 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
836 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
837 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
838 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
839 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
840 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
841 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
842 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
843 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
844 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
845 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
846 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
847 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
848 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
849 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
851 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
852 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
853 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
854 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
855 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
856 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
857 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
858 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
859 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
860 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
861 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
862 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
863 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
864 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
865 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
866 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
867 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
868 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
869 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
870 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
871 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
872 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
873 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
874 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
875 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
876 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
877 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
878 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
879 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
881 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
883 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
885 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
886 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
888 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
890 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
892 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
894 Use scm_string_hash instead.
896 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
898 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
900 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
902 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
904 ** New function: scm_gentemp (SCM prefix, SCM obarray)
906 The builtin `gentemp' has now become a primitive.
908 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
911 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
912 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
914 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
916 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
918 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
920 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
922 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
924 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
926 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
928 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
931 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
933 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
935 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
937 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
938 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
940 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
941 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
943 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
945 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
946 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
947 scm_module_define, scm_define.
949 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
952 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
954 * Changes to the distribution
956 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
958 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
959 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
960 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
961 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
962 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
963 obtain these programs.
964 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
965 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
967 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
968 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
969 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
970 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
971 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
973 However, this approach means that minor differences between
974 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
975 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
976 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
980 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
983 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
984 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
985 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
986 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
988 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
990 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
992 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
993 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
995 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
996 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
998 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
999 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
1001 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
1002 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
1003 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
1004 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
1006 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
1008 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
1012 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
1013 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
1015 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
1017 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
1018 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
1020 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
1021 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
1022 number of objects of that kind.
1024 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
1026 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
1027 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
1028 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
1029 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
1030 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
1032 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
1034 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
1036 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
1038 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
1041 ** New module (ice-9 time)
1043 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
1045 ** New module (ice-9 history)
1047 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
1049 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1051 ** New command line option --debug
1053 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
1055 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
1057 ** New help facility
1059 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
1060 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
1061 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
1062 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
1063 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
1064 (help) gives this text
1066 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
1067 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
1069 Examples: (help help)
1071 (help "output-string")
1073 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
1075 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
1077 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
1078 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
1081 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
1082 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
1083 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
1086 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
1087 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
1088 use absolute filenames when possible.
1090 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
1091 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
1092 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
1095 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
1097 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
1098 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
1099 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
1100 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
1102 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
1104 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
1106 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
1107 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
1108 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
1110 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
1111 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
1112 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
1114 (read-enable 'positions)
1115 (debug-enable 'debug)
1117 ** Backtraces in scripts
1119 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
1123 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
1125 at the top of the script.
1127 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
1128 The second enables backtraces.)
1130 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
1132 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
1133 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
1134 substantially faster than before.
1136 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
1137 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
1139 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
1140 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
1142 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
1144 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
1145 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
1146 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
1148 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
1149 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
1150 when this hook is run in the future.
1152 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
1153 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
1155 ** Improvements to garbage collector
1157 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
1158 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
1161 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
1162 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
1163 more and more memory for certain programs.)
1165 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
1166 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
1168 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
1169 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
1171 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
1172 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
1173 in order not to need further allocation.)
1175 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
1178 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
1179 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
1180 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
1181 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
1183 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
1185 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
1188 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
1190 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
1193 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
1194 GC in percent of total heap size
1197 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
1198 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
1200 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
1202 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
1203 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
1205 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
1207 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
1208 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
1210 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
1212 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
1213 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
1217 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
1218 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
1220 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
1222 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1224 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
1226 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
1228 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
1230 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
1231 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
1233 (simple-format port message . args)
1234 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
1235 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
1236 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
1237 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
1238 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
1239 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
1240 Does not add a trailing newline."
1242 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
1244 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
1245 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
1247 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
1248 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
1250 ** Deprecated: list*
1252 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
1254 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
1256 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
1257 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
1259 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
1260 is returned as result.
1262 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
1264 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
1266 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
1268 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
1269 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
1272 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
1274 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
1276 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
1277 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
1279 * Changes to the gh_ interface
1281 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
1283 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
1285 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1287 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
1289 Thanks to Greg Badros!
1291 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1293 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1294 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
1295 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
1297 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
1300 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
1302 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
1303 the readability of argument checking.
1305 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
1307 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
1309 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
1311 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
1312 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
1313 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
1314 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
1315 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
1316 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
1317 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
1319 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
1321 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
1323 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
1324 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
1326 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
1328 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
1329 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
1332 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
1334 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
1335 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
1336 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
1338 Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
1339 current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
1340 implementation with gmp in the future.
1342 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
1343 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
1344 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
1346 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
1347 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
1348 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
1349 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
1350 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
1351 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
1352 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
1354 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
1355 scm_end_input (object);
1356 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
1357 ptob->flush (object);
1359 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
1360 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
1363 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
1365 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
1367 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
1368 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
1369 removed in a future version.
1371 ** The format of error message strings has changed
1373 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
1374 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
1375 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
1376 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
1378 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
1379 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
1381 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
1384 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
1386 in your configure.in.
1388 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
1393 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
1399 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
1401 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
1405 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
1406 (define make-message string-append)
1408 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
1410 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
1414 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
1419 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
1423 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
1425 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
1426 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
1428 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
1430 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
1431 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
1432 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
1433 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
1434 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
1435 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
1437 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
1438 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
1439 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
1441 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
1442 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
1443 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
1446 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
1447 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
1448 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
1449 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
1450 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
1452 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
1453 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
1454 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
1455 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
1456 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
1457 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
1458 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
1460 Destructors are not yet implemented.
1462 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
1463 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
1464 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
1466 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
1467 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
1468 KEY in the calling thread.
1470 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
1471 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
1472 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
1473 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
1474 associated with the key.
1476 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
1478 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
1479 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
1481 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
1483 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
1484 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
1485 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
1487 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
1489 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
1490 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
1492 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
1494 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
1496 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
1497 returned is undefined.
1499 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
1500 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
1501 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
1503 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
1504 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
1505 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
1507 ** New C level GC hooks
1509 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
1511 scm_before_gc_c_hook
1514 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
1515 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
1516 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
1518 scm_before_mark_c_hook
1519 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
1520 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
1522 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
1523 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
1526 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
1528 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
1529 allocation parameters
1531 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
1532 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
1533 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
1537 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
1538 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
1539 scm_default_max_segment_size
1541 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
1543 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
1544 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
1546 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
1548 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
1549 object and count on the object being protected until
1550 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
1552 The functions also have better time complexity.
1554 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
1555 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
1556 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
1557 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
1558 are no longer needed.
1560 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
1562 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
1563 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
1564 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
1565 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
1567 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
1569 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
1571 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
1573 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
1574 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
1575 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
1576 until this issue has been settled.
1578 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
1580 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
1582 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
1585 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
1587 * Changes to system call interfaces:
1589 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
1590 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
1591 descriptors were checked.
1593 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
1594 atomically written to a pipe.
1596 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
1597 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
1598 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
1599 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
1600 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
1601 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
1602 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
1605 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
1606 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
1607 is changed without calling tzset.
1609 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
1611 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
1612 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
1613 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
1615 (define write-network-long
1616 (lambda (value port)
1617 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1618 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
1619 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
1621 (define read-network-long
1623 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1624 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
1625 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
1627 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
1628 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
1630 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
1631 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
1632 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
1633 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
1635 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
1636 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
1637 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
1638 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
1642 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
1644 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1648 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
1649 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
1650 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
1656 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
1657 for a description of available commands.
1659 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
1660 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
1661 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
1663 (debug-enable 'backwards)
1665 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
1666 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
1668 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
1670 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
1672 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
1673 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
1674 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
1675 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
1676 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
1677 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
1680 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
1682 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
1683 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
1684 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
1685 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
1687 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
1688 the file and should not be affected by this change.
1690 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
1692 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1694 ** Readline support has changed again.
1696 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
1697 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
1698 to activate readline is now
1700 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
1703 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
1705 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
1706 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
1707 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
1710 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
1711 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
1712 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
1715 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
1716 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
1717 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
1718 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
1719 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
1720 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
1722 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
1723 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
1725 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
1727 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
1728 object it receives is the same string passed to
1729 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
1730 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
1731 string, not the suffix.
1733 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
1734 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
1735 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
1737 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
1739 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
1740 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
1741 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
1742 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
1745 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1747 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
1749 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
1750 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
1751 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
1752 appear from left to right.
1754 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
1757 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
1759 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
1760 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
1762 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1766 *** New function: hook? OBJ
1768 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
1770 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
1772 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
1773 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
1774 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
1776 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
1778 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
1780 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
1782 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
1785 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
1787 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
1788 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
1789 mentioning it here anyway.
1791 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
1793 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
1794 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
1795 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
1796 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
1799 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
1801 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
1803 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
1805 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
1806 otherwise return #f.
1808 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
1810 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
1811 returned by `opendir'.
1813 ** New function: using-readline?
1815 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
1817 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1819 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
1820 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1822 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1824 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1826 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
1827 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
1828 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1830 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
1832 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
1833 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
1835 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
1837 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
1838 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
1839 documentation slots are not yet used.
1841 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
1843 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
1844 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
1845 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
1850 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
1851 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
1852 (string-append x y))
1854 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
1855 can also be used for concatenating strings.
1857 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
1858 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
1859 be made in a clean way.]
1861 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
1863 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1865 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1867 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
1868 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
1870 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1872 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
1874 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1876 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1878 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
1879 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
1880 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
1881 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
1884 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1886 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
1888 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1890 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1892 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
1893 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
1895 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1897 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
1899 Evaluates the body of a special form.
1901 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
1903 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
1904 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
1905 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
1906 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
1907 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
1908 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
1910 This should not make any difference for most users.
1912 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
1914 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
1915 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
1917 *** New functions for applying generic functions
1919 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
1920 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
1921 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
1922 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
1923 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
1925 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
1927 It is now replaced by:
1929 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
1931 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
1932 binds a variable named NAME to it.
1934 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
1936 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
1937 This might change when we get the new module system.
1939 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
1943 Changes since Guile 1.3:
1945 * Changes to mailing lists
1947 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
1949 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
1952 * Changes to the distribution
1954 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
1956 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
1957 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
1958 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
1959 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
1960 you explicitly specify it.
1962 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
1963 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
1964 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
1965 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
1966 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
1969 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
1970 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
1971 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
1972 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
1974 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
1975 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
1976 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
1979 You can activate the readline support by issuing
1981 (use-modules (readline-activator))
1984 from your ".guile" file, for example.
1986 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1988 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
1989 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
1990 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
1991 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
1993 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
1994 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
1997 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1999 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
2000 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
2001 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
2002 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
2003 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
2004 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
2005 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
2006 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
2018 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
2019 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
2020 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
2021 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
2022 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
2027 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
2028 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
2036 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
2041 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
2042 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
2045 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
2046 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
2047 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
2048 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
2050 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
2052 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
2054 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
2055 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
2057 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
2059 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
2061 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
2062 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
2064 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
2067 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
2069 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
2071 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
2073 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
2075 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
2077 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
2079 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
2080 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
2081 when the hook was created.
2083 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
2084 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
2085 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
2086 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
2087 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
2088 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
2089 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
2090 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
2091 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
2093 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
2094 the dlopen family of functions.
2096 ** New function `provided?'
2098 - Function: provided? FEATURE
2099 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
2100 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
2101 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
2103 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
2105 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
2106 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
2107 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
2108 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2111 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2112 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
2113 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
2114 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
2116 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
2117 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
2118 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
2121 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
2122 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
2123 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
2124 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
2125 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
2126 but with the flag set.
2128 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
2130 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
2131 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
2133 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
2134 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
2135 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
2136 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
2137 available Scheme format implementations.
2139 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
2140 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
2141 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
2142 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
2143 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
2144 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
2145 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
2146 output is to the current error port if available by the
2147 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
2150 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
2151 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
2152 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
2153 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
2154 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
2155 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
2156 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
2157 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
2159 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
2160 be executed at a time.
2163 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
2165 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
2166 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
2167 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
2169 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
2170 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
2171 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
2172 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
2173 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
2174 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
2175 general form of a directive is:
2177 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
2179 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
2181 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2183 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
2184 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
2185 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
2188 Any (print as `display' does).
2192 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
2196 S-expression (print as `write' does).
2200 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
2206 print number sign always.
2209 print comma separated.
2211 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
2217 print number sign always.
2220 print comma separated.
2222 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
2228 print number sign always.
2231 print comma separated.
2233 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
2239 print number sign always.
2242 print comma separated.
2244 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
2249 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
2253 print a number as a Roman numeral.
2256 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
2259 print a number as an ordinal English number.
2262 print a number as a cardinal English number.
2267 prints `y' and `ies'.
2270 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2273 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2278 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
2282 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
2285 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
2286 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
2288 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2291 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
2292 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
2294 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2297 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
2299 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
2301 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2304 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
2306 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
2308 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2311 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
2314 The sign appears before the padding.
2322 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
2324 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
2329 print N page separators.
2339 newline is ignored, white space left.
2342 newline is left, white space ignored.
2347 relative tabulation.
2353 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
2355 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
2358 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
2360 converts by `string-capitalize'.
2363 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
2366 converts by `string-upcase'.
2369 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
2371 jumps N arguments forward.
2374 jumps 1 argument backward.
2377 jumps N arguments backward.
2380 jumps to the 0th argument.
2383 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
2385 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
2386 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
2388 take argument from N.
2391 true test conditional.
2394 if-else-then conditional.
2400 default clause follows.
2403 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
2405 at most N iterations.
2408 args from next arg (a list of lists).
2411 args from the rest of arguments.
2414 args from the rest args (lists).
2425 aborts if N <= M <= K
2427 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2430 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2433 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2439 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
2441 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
2443 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
2444 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
2445 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
2446 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
2447 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
2448 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
2452 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
2456 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
2462 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
2465 Print a `#\space' character
2467 print N `#\space' characters.
2470 Print a `#\tab' character
2472 print N `#\tab' characters.
2475 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
2476 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
2477 must be a positive decimal number.
2480 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2481 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2482 be processed by `read'.
2485 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2486 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2487 be processed by `read'.
2490 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
2493 prints format version.
2496 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
2497 and format it accordingly.
2499 *** Configuration Variables
2501 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
2502 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
2503 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
2504 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
2507 format:symbol-case-conv
2508 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
2509 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
2510 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
2511 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
2512 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
2514 format:iobj-case-conv
2515 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
2516 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
2519 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
2522 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
2528 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
2529 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
2530 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
2531 `format' padding style.
2534 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
2535 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
2536 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
2537 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
2541 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
2542 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
2543 directive parameters or modifiers)).
2546 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
2547 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
2548 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
2549 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
2550 parameters or modifiers)).
2553 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
2555 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
2557 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
2558 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
2560 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
2561 string-downcase! functions.
2563 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
2564 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
2566 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
2569 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
2572 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
2573 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
2575 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
2577 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
2578 the symbol had be read by `read'.
2580 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
2581 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
2582 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
2583 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
2584 would if STRING were input.
2586 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
2588 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
2589 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
2590 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
2591 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
2594 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
2596 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
2597 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
2600 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
2602 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
2603 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
2605 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
2606 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
2608 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
2609 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
2610 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
2611 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
2613 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
2614 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
2616 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
2617 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
2618 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
2620 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
2621 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
2623 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
2624 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
2625 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
2626 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
2627 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
2629 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
2630 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
2631 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
2632 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
2633 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
2634 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
2636 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
2637 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
2638 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
2641 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
2642 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
2643 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
2644 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
2645 the following grammar:
2646 ((apples (single-char #\a))
2647 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
2648 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
2649 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
2650 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
2651 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
2652 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
2653 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
2654 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
2655 last option in its combination)
2657 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
2658 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
2659 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
2660 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
2662 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
2663 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
2664 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
2666 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2667 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2668 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
2670 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
2671 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
2672 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
2673 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
2674 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
2675 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
2676 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
2677 ordinary argument strings.
2679 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
2680 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
2681 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
2682 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
2684 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
2685 as a list, associated with the empty list.
2687 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
2688 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
2689 - a required option is omitted
2690 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
2691 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
2692 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
2693 - an option predicate fails
2698 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
2701 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
2702 (verbose (required? #f)
2705 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
2706 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
2707 (predicate ,string?))))
2709 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
2710 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2712 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2713 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
2714 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
2715 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
2718 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
2720 It will be removed in a few releases.
2722 ** New syntax: lambda*
2723 ** New syntax: define*
2724 ** New syntax: define*-public
2725 ** New syntax: defmacro*
2726 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
2727 Guile now supports optional arguments.
2729 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
2730 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
2731 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
2732 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
2733 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
2735 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
2736 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
2737 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
2739 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
2741 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
2742 and examples for `lambda*':
2745 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
2747 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
2748 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
2749 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
2750 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
2751 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
2752 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
2753 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
2754 can be checked with the bound? macro.
2756 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
2758 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
2759 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
2760 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
2761 are given as keywords are bound to values.
2763 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
2764 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
2765 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
2766 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
2767 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
2768 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
2769 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
2770 and until the procedure is called.
2772 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
2774 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
2775 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
2776 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
2777 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
2778 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
2779 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
2780 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
2781 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
2782 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
2783 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
2785 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
2786 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
2787 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
2788 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
2791 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
2793 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
2794 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
2795 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
2796 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
2798 ** New syntax: and-let*
2799 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
2801 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
2802 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
2803 (<variable> <expression>)
2806 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
2807 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
2808 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
2811 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
2812 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
2813 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
2814 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
2815 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
2816 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
2817 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
2819 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
2820 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
2821 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
2822 shadow earlier bindings.
2824 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
2826 ** New sorting functions
2828 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
2829 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
2830 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
2831 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
2833 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
2834 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
2837 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2838 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
2839 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
2841 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
2842 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
2843 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
2844 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
2846 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2847 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
2848 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
2849 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
2850 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
2853 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2854 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
2855 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
2856 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
2857 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
2858 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
2860 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
2861 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
2862 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
2864 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2865 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
2866 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
2869 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
2870 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
2871 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
2873 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
2874 Added for compatibility with scsh.
2876 ** New built-in random number support
2878 *** New function: random N [STATE]
2879 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
2880 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
2881 returned have a uniform distribution.
2883 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
2884 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
2885 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
2886 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
2887 effect of the `random' operation.
2889 *** New variable: *random-state*
2890 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
2891 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
2892 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
2893 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
2894 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
2897 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
2898 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2899 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2900 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
2901 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
2903 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
2904 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2905 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2906 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
2907 initialized using SEED.
2909 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
2910 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
2911 range between 0 and 1.
2913 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2914 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
2915 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
2916 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
2917 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
2918 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
2919 or a uniform vector of doubles.
2921 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2922 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
2923 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
2924 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
2925 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
2926 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2928 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
2929 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
2930 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
2931 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
2933 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
2934 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
2935 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
2936 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2938 *** New function: random:exp STATE
2939 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
2940 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
2942 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
2944 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
2947 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
2948 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
2951 ** New function: make-guardian
2952 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
2953 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
2954 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
2955 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
2956 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
2958 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
2959 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
2960 one object if at all.
2962 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
2963 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
2964 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
2966 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
2967 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
2968 read again in last-in first-out order.
2970 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
2971 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
2973 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
2975 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
2976 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
2977 file position is used.
2979 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
2980 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
2981 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
2983 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
2984 redefined using seek.
2986 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
2987 size is not supplied.
2989 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
2990 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
2992 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
2993 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
2995 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
2997 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
2998 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
2999 and returns the contents as a single string.
3001 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
3002 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
3003 lists in serial order.
3005 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
3006 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
3007 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
3009 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
3010 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
3011 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
3012 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
3014 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
3015 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
3016 and #f if an error occured.
3018 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
3020 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
3021 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
3022 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
3023 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
3025 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
3027 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
3030 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
3032 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
3035 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3039 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
3040 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
3042 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
3043 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
3047 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3049 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
3051 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3052 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3054 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3056 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
3057 might change when we get the new module system.
3059 ** The smob interface
3061 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
3062 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
3064 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
3066 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
3070 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
3071 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
3072 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
3073 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
3074 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
3075 will be freed by the default free function.
3077 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3078 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
3079 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3080 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3082 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3083 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
3084 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3085 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3087 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
3089 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
3090 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
3094 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
3095 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3096 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3098 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
3099 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
3100 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3101 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3103 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
3104 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
3105 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
3107 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
3108 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
3109 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
3110 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
3112 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
3113 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
3114 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
3116 *** scm_newptob has been removed
3120 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
3122 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
3123 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
3124 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
3126 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
3127 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
3128 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
3130 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
3131 a string port's buffer.
3133 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
3134 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
3135 function pointers which together define the current random number
3136 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
3137 number library functions.
3139 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
3142 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
3143 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
3146 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
3147 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3149 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
3150 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
3152 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
3153 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
3156 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
3157 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
3158 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
3159 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
3161 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
3162 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
3163 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
3164 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
3165 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
3166 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
3167 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
3169 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
3170 by libguile and the application.
3172 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3173 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3174 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
3175 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
3177 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
3178 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
3180 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3181 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
3182 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
3184 ** Random number library functions
3185 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
3186 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
3187 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
3189 The default random state is stored in:
3191 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
3192 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
3193 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
3198 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
3200 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
3201 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
3202 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
3203 isn't a random state.
3205 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
3206 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
3208 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
3209 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
3210 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
3211 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
3213 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3214 Return 32 random bits.
3216 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3217 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
3219 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3220 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
3222 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3223 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
3225 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
3226 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3228 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
3229 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3230 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
3234 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
3236 * Changes to the distribution
3238 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
3239 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
3240 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
3243 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
3244 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
3245 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
3247 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
3248 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
3249 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
3250 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
3253 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
3254 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
3255 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
3257 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3259 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
3261 *** Function: batch-mode?
3263 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
3266 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
3268 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
3269 case has not been implemented.
3271 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
3272 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
3273 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
3276 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
3277 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
3279 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
3281 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3283 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
3285 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
3286 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
3289 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
3290 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
3291 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
3292 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
3295 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
3297 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
3298 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
3299 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
3300 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
3301 find those libraries.
3303 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
3304 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
3307 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
3309 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
3310 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
3311 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
3312 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
3314 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
3315 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
3316 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
3320 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
3322 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
3323 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
3324 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
3327 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
3328 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
3329 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
3330 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
3332 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
3333 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
3336 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
3337 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
3338 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
3339 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
3340 compiler where to find the libraries.
3342 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
3343 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
3344 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
3346 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
3347 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
3348 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
3349 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
3350 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
3354 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3356 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
3357 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
3358 internationalization support.
3360 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
3361 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
3362 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
3363 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
3364 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
3366 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
3367 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
3368 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
3369 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
3370 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
3372 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
3373 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
3374 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
3375 any GNU mirror site.
3377 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
3379 ** New function: add-history STRING
3380 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
3381 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
3382 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
3384 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
3386 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
3387 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
3388 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
3391 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
3392 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
3393 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
3395 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
3397 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
3400 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
3401 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
3404 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
3405 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
3406 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
3407 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
3408 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
3409 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
3411 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
3412 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
3413 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
3414 of the form mentioned above.
3416 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
3417 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
3418 returned in the special `rest' list.
3420 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
3421 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
3423 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
3425 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
3427 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
3429 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
3430 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
3431 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
3432 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
3433 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
3434 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
3435 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
3436 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
3439 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
3441 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
3443 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
3444 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
3447 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
3448 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
3449 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
3453 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
3454 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
3455 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
3456 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
3457 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
3458 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
3459 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
3460 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
3463 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
3465 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
3466 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
3467 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
3469 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
3471 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
3472 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
3474 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
3475 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
3476 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
3478 Why do we have this function?
3479 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
3480 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
3481 primitive, and display it differently, and
3482 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
3483 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
3486 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
3487 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
3490 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
3491 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
3492 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
3493 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
3495 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
3496 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
3499 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
3500 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
3502 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
3504 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
3505 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
3506 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
3507 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
3508 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
3509 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
3510 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
3513 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
3515 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
3516 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
3518 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
3519 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
3520 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
3521 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
3522 properly continue the print chain.
3524 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
3525 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
3526 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
3527 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
3528 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
3529 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
3530 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
3531 print-state, it is simply ignored.
3533 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
3534 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
3535 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
3536 safest to not check for these pairs.
3538 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
3539 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
3540 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
3541 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
3543 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
3545 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
3546 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
3548 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
3550 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
3552 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
3553 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
3554 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
3556 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
3557 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
3558 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
3560 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
3561 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
3562 the following functions and macros:
3564 Function: make-fluid
3566 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
3567 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
3568 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
3569 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
3570 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
3572 Function: fluid? OBJ
3574 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
3576 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
3577 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
3579 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
3580 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
3582 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
3584 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
3585 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
3586 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
3587 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
3588 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
3589 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
3590 modified by `with-fluids*'.
3592 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
3594 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
3595 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
3596 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
3597 should evaluate to a fluid.
3599 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
3601 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
3602 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
3603 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
3604 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
3605 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
3607 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
3610 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
3612 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
3614 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
3616 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
3619 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
3620 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
3621 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
3622 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
3623 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
3626 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
3627 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
3628 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
3630 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
3631 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
3632 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
3634 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
3635 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
3636 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3637 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
3639 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
3640 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
3641 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3642 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
3644 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
3645 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
3646 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
3647 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
3649 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
3650 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
3651 their revealed counts set to zero.
3653 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3654 Returns an integer file descriptor.
3656 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3657 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
3659 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3660 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
3662 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3663 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
3664 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
3666 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
3667 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
3668 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
3670 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
3671 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
3672 default environment inherited by child processes.
3674 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
3675 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
3676 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
3678 The return value is unspecified.
3680 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
3681 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
3682 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
3683 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
3684 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
3686 The return value is unspecified.
3688 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
3689 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
3697 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
3698 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
3701 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
3704 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
3705 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
3706 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
3708 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
3709 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
3710 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
3711 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
3714 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
3715 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
3717 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
3718 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
3719 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
3720 the `environ' procedure.
3722 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
3723 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
3726 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
3727 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
3729 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
3730 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
3731 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
3732 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
3734 *** procedure: times
3735 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
3736 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
3737 return a selected component:
3740 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
3744 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
3747 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
3751 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
3752 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
3756 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
3757 terminated child processes.
3759 ** Removed: list-length
3760 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
3761 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
3763 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
3765 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
3767 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
3769 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
3770 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
3771 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
3772 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
3774 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
3775 extra complexity it introduces.
3777 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
3778 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
3780 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
3781 variable to any non-empty value.
3783 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
3784 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
3786 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3788 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
3789 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
3791 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
3793 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
3794 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
3796 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
3798 ** vector handling routines
3800 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
3801 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
3802 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
3803 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
3804 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
3806 ** pair and list routines
3808 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
3811 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
3813 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
3816 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3818 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
3820 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
3821 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
3822 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
3823 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
3824 site-specific initialization code.
3826 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
3827 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
3828 initialization processes.
3830 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
3831 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
3832 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
3833 initialized properly.
3835 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
3836 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
3837 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
3839 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
3840 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
3841 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
3842 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
3843 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
3845 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
3847 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
3848 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
3849 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
3850 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
3851 objects the smob refers to get marked.
3853 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
3854 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
3855 which look like this:
3858 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
3860 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
3861 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
3864 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
3865 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
3868 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
3870 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
3871 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
3872 you will need to change your functions slightly.
3874 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
3875 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
3876 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
3877 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
3878 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
3880 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
3881 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
3883 int (*free) (SCM port);
3884 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
3885 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
3886 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
3890 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
3891 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
3892 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
3894 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
3897 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
3898 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
3899 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
3901 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
3902 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
3903 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
3906 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
3910 struct timeval *timeout);
3912 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
3913 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
3914 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
3915 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
3916 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
3917 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
3919 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
3920 scm_catch_body_t body,
3922 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3925 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
3926 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
3927 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
3928 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
3929 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
3930 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
3932 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
3934 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3937 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
3938 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
3939 spawning threads from application C code.
3941 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
3942 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
3943 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
3944 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
3945 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
3946 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
3948 ** Removed functions:
3950 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
3951 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
3953 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
3955 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
3956 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
3958 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
3960 ** mbstrings are now removed
3962 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
3963 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
3965 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
3967 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
3968 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
3969 their new names and arguments:
3971 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
3972 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
3973 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
3974 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
3977 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
3979 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
3981 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
3984 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
3986 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
3987 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
3988 pass a #f arg to catch.
3990 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
3992 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
3993 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
3996 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
3997 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
3998 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
3999 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
4000 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
4001 reclaim its storage.
4003 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
4004 worrying that some other function you call will call
4005 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
4006 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
4007 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
4008 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
4011 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
4013 * Changes to the distribution
4015 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
4016 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
4019 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
4020 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
4022 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4023 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4025 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
4027 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
4028 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
4029 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
4031 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4033 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
4034 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
4035 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
4036 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
4037 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
4038 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
4040 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
4041 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
4042 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
4045 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
4046 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
4047 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
4048 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
4050 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
4051 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
4052 libraries to your link command:
4054 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
4055 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
4056 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4057 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4059 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
4060 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
4061 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
4063 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4065 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
4066 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
4069 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
4071 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
4072 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
4073 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
4074 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
4075 searched is system dependent.
4077 (dynamic-object? VAL)
4079 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
4081 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
4083 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
4084 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
4086 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4088 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
4089 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
4090 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
4091 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
4092 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
4095 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4097 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
4098 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
4099 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
4100 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
4101 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
4103 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
4105 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
4106 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
4108 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
4110 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
4111 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
4112 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
4115 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
4117 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
4118 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
4119 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
4120 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
4122 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
4123 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
4125 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
4127 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
4128 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
4130 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
4132 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
4133 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
4141 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
4143 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
4144 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
4145 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
4146 a more informative way.
4148 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
4149 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
4150 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
4151 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
4152 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
4153 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
4155 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
4156 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
4159 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
4160 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
4161 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
4164 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
4165 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
4166 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
4167 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
4168 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
4169 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
4171 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
4172 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
4173 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
4174 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
4177 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
4178 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
4179 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
4180 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
4181 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
4182 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
4184 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
4185 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
4186 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
4187 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
4188 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
4190 *** regexp functions
4192 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
4193 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
4194 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
4196 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
4197 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
4198 with SCSH regular expressions.
4200 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
4201 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
4202 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
4203 position of STR at which to begin matching.
4205 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
4206 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
4207 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
4208 `string-match' returns `#f'.
4210 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
4211 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
4212 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
4213 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
4214 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
4215 match strings against the compiled regexp.
4217 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
4218 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
4219 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
4220 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
4221 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
4223 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4225 **** Constant: regexp/extended
4226 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
4227 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
4228 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
4230 **** Constant: regexp/icase
4231 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
4232 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
4234 **** Constant: regexp/newline
4235 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
4237 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
4240 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
4241 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4242 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
4244 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
4245 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4246 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
4248 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
4249 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
4250 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
4251 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
4252 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
4255 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4257 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
4258 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
4259 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
4260 used when different portions of a string are passed to
4261 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
4262 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
4264 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
4265 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
4266 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
4268 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
4269 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
4272 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
4273 and replace them with the contents of another string.
4275 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
4276 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
4277 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
4278 may be one of the following arguments:
4280 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
4282 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
4284 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
4285 the regexp match is written.
4287 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
4288 following the regexp match is written.
4290 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
4291 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
4294 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
4295 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
4296 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
4297 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
4298 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
4299 which should be matched against this regular expression.
4301 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
4304 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
4305 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
4306 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
4307 written out to PORT.
4309 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
4310 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
4311 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
4312 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
4313 will return after processing a single match.
4315 *** Match Structures
4317 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
4318 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
4319 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
4320 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
4321 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
4322 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
4325 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
4326 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
4327 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
4328 information about the original target string that was matched against a
4329 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
4331 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
4332 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
4333 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
4335 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
4336 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
4337 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
4338 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
4339 number N did not match, return `#f'.
4341 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
4342 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
4344 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
4345 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
4347 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
4348 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
4350 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
4351 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
4353 **** Function: match:count MATCH
4354 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
4355 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
4356 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
4358 **** Function: match:string MATCH
4359 Return the original TARGET string.
4361 *** Backslash Escapes
4363 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
4364 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
4365 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
4366 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
4367 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
4368 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
4370 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
4371 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
4372 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
4373 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
4374 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
4375 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
4376 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
4377 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
4379 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
4380 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
4381 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
4382 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
4383 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
4384 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
4385 each match a single backslash in the target string.
4387 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
4388 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
4389 return the resulting string.
4391 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
4392 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
4393 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
4394 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
4395 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
4396 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
4397 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
4398 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
4399 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
4400 translated to the single character `*'.
4402 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
4403 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
4404 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
4405 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
4406 consecutive backslashes:
4408 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
4410 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
4411 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
4412 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
4414 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
4415 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
4416 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
4417 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
4418 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
4419 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
4421 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
4423 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
4424 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
4425 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
4426 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
4427 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
4428 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
4429 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
4430 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
4431 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
4432 cumbersome escape syntax.
4434 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4436 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4438 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4440 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
4443 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
4445 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
4447 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
4450 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
4451 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
4452 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
4453 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
4454 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
4456 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
4457 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
4458 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
4459 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
4460 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
4461 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
4462 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
4465 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
4466 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
4467 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
4470 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
4471 `force-output' on every port open for output.
4473 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
4474 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
4475 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
4476 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
4477 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
4478 installed, you can say:
4480 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
4483 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4485 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
4486 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
4487 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
4488 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
4489 new dynamic roots and threads.
4492 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
4494 * Changes to the distribution.
4496 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
4498 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
4499 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
4500 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
4501 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
4502 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
4503 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
4504 programming language. These are packaged together because the
4505 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
4507 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
4510 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
4511 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
4516 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4518 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
4519 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
4521 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
4522 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
4523 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
4524 the (command-line) function.
4525 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
4526 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
4527 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
4529 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
4530 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
4531 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
4532 command line arguments
4533 -ds do -s script at this point
4534 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
4535 -h, --help display this help and exit
4536 -v, --version display version information and exit
4537 \ read arguments from following script lines
4539 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
4540 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
4542 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4545 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4549 (main (command-line))
4551 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
4553 ekko a speckled gecko
4555 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
4556 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
4557 following list of command-line arguments:
4559 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
4561 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
4562 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
4563 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
4564 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
4565 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4567 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
4569 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
4571 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
4572 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
4575 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
4576 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
4577 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
4578 SCSH) for circumventing them.
4580 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
4581 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
4582 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
4583 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
4585 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
4589 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4593 If the user invokes this script as follows:
4595 ekko a speckled gecko
4597 Unix expands this into
4599 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
4601 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
4602 read from the second line of the script, producing:
4604 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
4606 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
4607 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4609 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
4610 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
4611 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
4612 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
4613 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
4614 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
4615 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
4616 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
4617 it only terminates the argument list.)
4618 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
4619 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
4620 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
4621 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
4622 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
4623 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
4624 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
4625 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
4627 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4629 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
4630 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
4631 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
4632 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
4633 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
4635 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
4636 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
4637 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
4639 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
4641 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
4642 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
4643 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
4644 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
4647 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
4648 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4649 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4651 * Changes to Scheme functions
4653 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
4654 and disabled by default.
4656 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
4657 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
4658 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
4659 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
4661 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
4663 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
4665 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
4666 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
4668 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
4669 (read-set! keywords #f)
4671 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
4672 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
4673 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
4676 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
4677 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
4678 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
4681 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
4682 support for Scheme functions.
4684 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4685 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
4686 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
4687 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
4690 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4691 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
4692 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
4695 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
4696 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
4697 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
4700 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
4701 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
4702 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
4703 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
4704 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
4705 display the result as a prompt.
4706 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
4708 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
4709 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
4710 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
4713 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
4714 procedure of zero arguments.
4716 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
4717 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
4718 argument is bound in the current module.
4720 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
4721 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
4722 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
4723 public bindings into the current module.
4725 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
4726 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
4728 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
4729 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
4731 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
4732 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
4734 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
4735 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
4737 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
4738 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
4740 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
4741 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
4742 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
4743 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
4744 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
4746 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
4747 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
4748 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
4749 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
4751 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
4754 ** Changes to I/O functions
4756 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
4757 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
4758 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
4760 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
4761 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
4762 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
4764 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
4765 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
4767 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
4768 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
4769 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
4770 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
4772 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
4774 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
4775 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
4777 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
4778 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
4779 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
4780 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
4781 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
4784 'trim omit delimiter from result
4785 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
4786 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
4787 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
4789 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
4791 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
4792 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
4794 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
4795 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
4796 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
4797 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
4798 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
4800 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
4801 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
4802 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
4804 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
4805 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
4806 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
4807 above, and defaults to 'peek.
4809 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
4810 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4812 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
4813 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
4815 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
4817 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
4818 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
4819 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
4820 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
4821 a delimiting character.
4822 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
4824 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
4825 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
4826 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
4827 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
4828 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
4829 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
4831 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
4832 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4834 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
4835 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
4836 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
4838 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
4839 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
4840 the array to read and write.
4842 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
4843 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
4846 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
4848 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
4851 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
4852 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
4853 Values for COMMAND are:
4855 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
4856 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
4857 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
4858 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
4859 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
4860 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
4861 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
4862 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
4864 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
4866 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
4867 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
4868 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
4869 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
4870 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
4871 corresponding return set will be the same.
4873 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
4876 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
4877 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
4878 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
4879 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
4880 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
4881 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
4882 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
4883 special file being created.
4885 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
4886 clashing with various SCSH forks.
4888 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
4889 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
4890 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
4891 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
4892 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
4893 and originating address.
4895 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
4896 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
4897 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
4899 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
4902 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
4903 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
4906 (status:exit-val STATUS)
4907 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
4908 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
4909 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
4910 this function returns #f.
4912 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
4913 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
4914 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
4917 (status:term-sig STATUS)
4918 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
4919 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
4922 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
4923 a valid STATUS value.
4925 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
4927 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
4928 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
4930 Component Accessor Setter
4931 ========================= ============ ============
4932 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
4933 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
4934 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
4935 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
4936 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
4937 year tm:year set-tm:year
4938 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
4939 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
4940 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
4941 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
4942 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
4944 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
4945 describing the host system:
4948 ============================================== ================
4949 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
4950 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
4951 release level of the operating system utsname:release
4952 version level of the operating system utsname:version
4953 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
4955 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
4956 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
4957 system's user database:
4960 ====================== =================
4961 user name passwd:name
4962 user password passwd:passwd
4965 real name passwd:gecos
4966 home directory passwd:dir
4967 shell program passwd:shell
4969 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
4970 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
4971 system's group database:
4974 ======================= ============
4975 group name group:name
4976 group password group:passwd
4978 group members group:mem
4980 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
4981 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
4985 ========================= ===============
4986 official name of host hostent:name
4987 alias list hostent:aliases
4988 host address type hostent:addrtype
4989 length of address hostent:length
4990 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
4992 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
4993 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
4997 ========================= ===============
4998 official name of net netent:name
4999 alias list netent:aliases
5000 net number type netent:addrtype
5001 net number netent:net
5003 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
5004 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
5008 ========================= ===============
5009 official protocol name protoent:name
5010 alias list protoent:aliases
5011 protocol number protoent:proto
5013 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
5014 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
5018 ========================= ===============
5019 official service name servent:name
5020 alias list servent:aliases
5021 port number servent:port
5022 protocol to use servent:proto
5024 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
5025 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
5028 ======================================== ===============
5029 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
5030 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
5031 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
5032 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
5034 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
5035 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
5036 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
5038 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
5039 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
5041 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
5042 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
5044 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
5045 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
5047 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
5049 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
5051 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
5052 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
5053 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
5055 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
5056 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
5057 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
5058 return the remaining characters as a string.
5060 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
5061 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
5062 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
5064 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
5066 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5068 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
5071 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
5074 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
5075 and returns the array
5077 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
5078 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
5079 the user to interpret the data both ways.
5081 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5083 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
5084 symbol's value from C code:
5086 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
5087 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
5088 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
5089 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
5091 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
5092 without assigning them a value.
5094 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
5095 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
5096 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
5098 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
5099 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
5100 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
5102 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
5103 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
5105 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
5106 doesn't actually care about that.
5108 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
5109 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
5110 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
5112 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
5113 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
5114 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
5115 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
5116 which we have just created and initialized.
5118 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
5119 should one occur. We call it like this:
5120 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
5122 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
5123 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
5124 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
5125 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
5126 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
5127 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
5130 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
5131 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
5132 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
5133 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
5134 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
5135 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
5136 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
5139 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
5140 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
5141 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
5142 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
5143 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
5146 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
5147 scm_internal_catch, except:
5149 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
5150 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
5151 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
5152 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
5155 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
5156 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
5157 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
5159 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
5160 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
5161 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
5162 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
5165 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
5166 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
5167 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
5169 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
5170 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
5171 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
5172 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
5173 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
5175 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
5176 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
5177 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
5179 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
5180 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
5181 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
5183 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
5184 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
5186 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
5187 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
5188 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
5191 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
5192 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
5193 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
5194 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
5195 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
5196 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
5197 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
5200 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
5201 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
5203 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
5204 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
5205 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
5206 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
5207 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
5210 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
5211 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
5213 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
5214 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
5217 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
5218 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
5220 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5223 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
5224 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
5225 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
5226 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
5227 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
5228 given the following arguments:
5230 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5232 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
5234 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
5236 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5239 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
5240 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
5241 command-line arguments.
5243 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
5244 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
5245 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
5246 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
5247 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
5248 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
5251 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5254 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
5255 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
5257 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
5258 rearranged slightly. They are now:
5260 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5261 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5262 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
5263 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
5265 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5266 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5268 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5269 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
5270 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5271 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
5273 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5274 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5276 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
5277 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
5279 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
5281 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
5282 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
5283 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
5286 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
5287 returns a port instead of an FD object.
5289 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
5290 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
5295 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
5298 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
5300 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
5301 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
5302 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
5303 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
5305 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
5307 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
5309 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
5310 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
5311 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
5312 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
5313 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
5314 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
5315 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
5316 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
5317 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
5318 for more information.
5320 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
5321 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
5323 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
5324 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
5325 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
5326 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
5327 following two lines at the top of the file:
5329 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5332 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
5333 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
5334 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
5336 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
5338 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5340 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
5343 (display (car args))
5344 (if (pair? (cdr args))
5346 (loop (cdr args)))))
5349 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
5350 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
5351 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
5352 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
5353 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
5354 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
5358 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
5361 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
5364 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
5366 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
5367 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
5368 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
5369 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
5370 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
5373 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
5374 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
5375 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
5376 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
5377 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
5380 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
5383 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
5384 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
5385 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
5388 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
5389 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
5390 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
5392 to see a backtrace, and
5393 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
5394 to see them by default.
5398 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
5400 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
5402 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
5403 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
5406 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
5407 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
5408 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
5409 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
5412 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
5413 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
5414 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
5415 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
5416 functions which inspired them.
5418 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
5419 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
5423 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
5425 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
5427 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
5428 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
5431 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
5432 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
5433 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
5435 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
5436 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
5437 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
5438 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
5439 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
5441 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
5443 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
5444 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
5445 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
5448 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
5451 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
5453 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
5454 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
5455 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
5456 above should serve their purposes.
5458 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
5459 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
5460 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
5461 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
5463 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
5466 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
5467 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
5468 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
5469 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
5471 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
5472 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
5473 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
5474 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
5476 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
5477 for the `read' function.
5480 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
5481 to that of `integer?'.
5483 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
5484 use the R4RS names for these functions.
5486 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
5487 it simply returns the object's property list.
5489 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
5490 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
5491 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
5492 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
5494 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
5496 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
5499 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
5501 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
5502 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
5504 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
5506 void (*main_func) (),
5509 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
5510 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
5511 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
5512 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
5513 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
5515 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
5516 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
5517 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
5518 know which arguments have been processed.
5520 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
5521 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
5522 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
5523 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
5524 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
5526 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
5527 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
5528 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
5529 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
5530 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
5531 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
5532 people from making that mistake.
5534 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
5535 convenient ways to override these when desired.
5537 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
5539 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
5543 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
5546 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
5547 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
5548 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
5549 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
5552 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
5553 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
5554 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
5555 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
5558 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
5559 have been added to the Guile library.
5561 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
5562 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
5563 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
5566 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
5567 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
5568 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
5570 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
5571 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
5572 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
5573 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
5574 argument from the list.
5577 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
5580 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
5581 null-terminated string, and returns it.
5583 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
5584 to a Scheme port object.
5586 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
5587 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
5592 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
5594 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
5595 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
5596 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
5597 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
5598 code as a special datatype.
5600 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
5601 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
5602 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
5603 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
5604 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
5607 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
5608 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
5609 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
5610 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
5611 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
5613 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
5616 Copyright information:
5618 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5620 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
5621 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
5622 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
5623 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
5625 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
5626 of this document, or of portions of it,
5627 under the above conditions, provided also that they
5628 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
5633 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"