We are pleased to announce GNU Guile release 1.9.7. This is the next pre-release of what will eventually become the 2.0 release series. It provides many new noteworthy features, most notably the addition of a compiler and virtual machine. We encourage you to test them and provide feedback to `[email protected]'.
The Guile web page is located at http://gnu.org/software/guile/, and among other things, it contains a link to the Guile FAQ and pointers to the mailing lists. Guile is an implementation of the Scheme programming language, with support for many SRFIs, packaged for use in a wide variety of environments. In addition to implementing the R5RS Scheme standard, Guile includes a module system, full access to POSIX system calls, networking support, multiple threads, dynamic linking, a foreign function call interface, and powerful string processing. Guile can run interactively, as a script interpreter, and as a Scheme compiler to VM bytecode. It is also packaged as a library so that applications can easily incorporate a complete Scheme interpreter/VM. An application can use Guile as an extension language, a clean and powerful configuration language, or as multi-purpose "glue" to connect primitives provided by the application. It is easy to call Scheme code From C code and vice versa. Applications can add new functions, data types, control structures, and even syntax to Guile, to create a domain-specific language tailored to the task at hand. Here are the compressed sources: ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/guile/guile-1.9.7.tar.gz (4.8MB) Here are the GPG detached signatures[*]: ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/guile/guile-1.9.7.tar.gz.sig To reduce load on the main server, use a mirror listed at: http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html Here are the MD5 and SHA1 checksums: 0d58d2f0533fe61c6a5fe9679aff3b28 guile-1.9.7.tar.gz f50f807873303d3812ba974d9be6b5ea1b9d02f2 guile-1.9.7.tar.gz [*] You can use either of the above signature files to verify that the corresponding file (without the .sig suffix) is intact. First, be sure to download both the .sig file and the corresponding tarball. Then, run a command like this: gpg --verify guile-1.9.7.tar.gz.sig If that command fails because you don't have the required public key, then run this command to import it: gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys EA52ECF4 and rerun the `gpg --verify' command. This release was bootstrapped with the following tools: Autoconf 2.65 Automake 1.11.1 Libtool 2.2.6b This is a new release series with many new features and differences compared to 1.8. The complete list of changes compared to the 1.8.x series is available in the `NEWS' file. Changes since the 1.9.6 pre-release: ** Complete support for version information in Guile's `module' form Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. They may be loaded by version as well. See "R6RS Version References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules", and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information. ** Support for renaming bindings on module export Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information. ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See "Standard Library" in the manual for more details. ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most time. See `,help profile' for more information. Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information. ** New debugger By default, if an exception is raised at the REPL and not caught by user code, Guile will drop the user into a debugger. The user may request a backtrace, inspect frames, or continue raising the exception. Full documentation is available from within the debugger. ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for more details. There is a new `format' specifier, `...@y', for doing a truncated print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format' documentation for more details. ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs", primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a special bytecode to apply the gsubr. This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls. However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS' `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'. Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr', `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes, and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family instead. Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive procedures. ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere, or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are addressed by element and not by byte. So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native endianness, as one would expect. Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the same to Guile. In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors. Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access. See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information. ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'. Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well. See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information. ** Unicode: String normalization, general categories, title case Guile now exports the Unicode string normalization functions `string-normalize-nfc', `string-normalize-nfd', `string-normalize-nfkc', and `string-normalize-nfkd'. See "String Comparison" in the manual for more information. See "Characters" for information on the new `char-general-category', and "Character Case Mapping" for `char-titlecase', `char-locale-titlecase', and `string-locale-titlecase'. ** Faster access to the free variables of a closure Guile's old garbage collector limited the size of Scheme objects to be 2 or 4 words. Now with the BDW collector, Guile can allocate variable-sized objects, allowing storage of the free variables of a closure inline to the closure itself. ** New primitive `getsid' Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call. ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal, non-SMOB case. The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures. ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp', `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v', `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM', `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'. ** String encoding errors throw to `encoding-error' instead of `misc-error' ** Keyword argument errors uniformly throw to `keyword-argument-error' ** Remove unused snarf macros `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1' are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead. ** Add foreign value wrapper Guile now has a datatype for aliasing "foreign" values, such as native long values. This should be useful for making a proper foreign function interface. Interested hackers should see libguile/foreign.h. ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn' `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments. `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments. ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half, in the common case. ** Compile-time warning: -Wunused-toplevel Guile can warn about potentially unused top-level (global) variables. Pass the -Wunused-toplevel on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add `#:warnings '(unused-toplevel)' to your `compile' or `compile-file' invocation. ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes' The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'), `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as parenthesis. This option is on by default. If this causes problems with your code, make sure to report it to [email protected] so we can change the default. When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information. You can follow Guile development in the Git repository and on the Guile mailing lists. Guile builds from the `master' branch of Git have version number 1.9.x. Guile versions with an odd middle number, e.g., 1.9.*, are unstable development versions. Even middle numbers indicate stable versions. This has been the case since the 1.3.* series. Please report bugs to `[email protected]'. We also welcome reports of successful builds, which can be sent to the same email address. Ludovic Courtès, on behalf of the Guile team.
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