guile-1.4.1.7.20020821.tar.gz (snapshot) available

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

... under http://www.glug.org/tmp/2002-08/ (or will be in the next 15
minutes or so).  now does "petrify-headers" on install and removes any
scmconfig.h from previous installations.  docs are shaping up, too.
readline.test temporarily disabled by request.  new NEWS items appended
below.

thi


____________________________________________
* `help' capabilities expanded

The `help' command, available after loading module (ice-9 session), now
accepts a quoted symbol, in which case non-resident documentation (i.e.,
guile-procedures.txt) is consulted.

        For example: (help 'acons)

Also now accepted is an unquoted list of symbols, in which case the list is
interpreted as a module name and its commentary is displayed if available.
See `file-commentary' immediately following.  The module is not loaded.

        For example: (help (scripts lint))

* New procs in (ice-9 documentation)

Loading (ice-9 documentation) provides two new procs:
  (file-commentary FILENAME [IN-LINE-RE [AFTER-LINE-RE [SCRUB]]])
  (search-documentation-files NAME [FILES-LIST])

See commentary for more info.

* New module (ice-9 gap-buffer)

This provides the gap-buffer data structure, which is basically a string
that supports "point" and efficient insertion/deletion similar to Emacs
(not coincidentally).  The exported procs are:
   (make-gap-buffer . INIT)
   (gb-point GB)
   (gb-point-min GB)
   (gb-point-max GB)
   (gb-insert-string! GB STRING)
   (gb-insert-char! GB CHAR)
   (gb-delete-char! GB COUNT)
   (gb-goto-char GB LOCATION)
   (gb->port! GB PORT)
   (gb->string GB)
   (gb-filter! GB STRING-PROC)
   (gb->lines GB)
   (gb-filter-lines! GB LINES-PROC)
   (make-gap-buffer-port GB)

* New module (ice-9 pretty-print)

This provides the procedure `pretty-print' documented in the manual.
Additionally, the `format' from (ice-9 format) now uses `pretty-print'
to handle its ~Y directive.  For example, these two programs produce
identical output:

  ;; program the first
  (use-modules (ice-9 pretty-print))
  (pretty-print (procedure-source top-repl))

  ;; program the second
  (use-modules (ice-9 format))
  (format #t "~Y" (procedure-source top-repl))