Remove all automatic readline support, to avoid copyright

confusion.
* INSTALL: Update text.
* NEWS: Explain the situation.
* configure.in: Remove configury for readline and its supporting
libraries.
* configure: Regenerated.

INSTALL

@@ -78,10 +78,6 @@ be enabled by default.  The interaction with blocking I/O is pretty ad
 hoc at the moment.  In our experience, bugs in the thread support do
 not affect you if you don't actually use threads.
 
---with-readline --- include support for fancy line editing, based on
-the GNU readline library.  This is enabled by default, so you must
-specify --with-readline=no if you don't want it.
-
 --enable-dynamic-linking --- Build a Guile executable and library
 providing Scheme functions which can load a shared library and
 initialize it, perhaps thereby adding new functions to Guile.  This

NEWS

@@ -8,65 +8,33 @@ Changes since Guile 1.3:
 
 * Changes to the distribution
 
-** The configure script now accepts a --with-readline flag.
+** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
 
-By default, Guile includes support for the readline line-editing
+Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
-library, if a sufficiently recent version of the library is installed
+concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
-on your system.
+Readline into an application program.  Readline support is now offered
+as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
+you explicitly specify it.
 
-If you do not want readline included in Guile, pass the following flag
+Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
-to the configure script:
+exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL).  Guile's
+license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
+programs.  We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
+disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
+languages.
 
-  --with-readline=no
+In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
+General Public License pure and simple.  This means that you may not
+link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
+distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
 
-You may not want to configure Guile to use readline if you are unable
+Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
-to release your program under the GNU General Public License; the
+can use Guile may not be able to use Readline.  Now users will be
-readline library is released under the GPL, so anything linked with it
+explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
-must also be distributed under the GPL.
+two packages.
-
-Enabling readline support does not significantly increase the size of
-the Guile library.  Readline itself is a shared library on most
-systems, and the readline interface code in Guile is less than 3
-kilobytes long.
-
-In future releases of Guile, we hope to have the readline support
-linked into Guile dynamically, if and when you use it.  This would
-make this configuration option unnecessary; the same Guile library
-could be used both with and without the readline library.
 
 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
 
-** Command-line editing is enhanced.
-
-If you have a sufficiently recent version of the GNU readline library
-installed on your system, Guile will use it to read expressions
-interactively.  
-
-You can now use the readline-options interface to control readline's
-behavior.  You can now control the readline library's behavior by
-changing the options listed below.
-
-  (readline-enable 'history-file)
-    Tell readline to record your commands in a file when you exit
-    Guile, and restore them when you restart Guile.  By default, Guile
-    saves commands to `$HOME/.guile_history', but if the
-    `GUILE_HISTORY' environment variable is set, Guile will use its
-    value as the name of the history file.
-
-    If Guile is unable to save or restore lines from the history file,
-    the operation is simply not performed; the user is not notified.
-
-  (readline-disable 'history-file)
-    Tell Guile not to save or restore command history.
-
-  (readline-set! history-length N)
-    Tell Guile to save at most N lines of command history.
-
-  (readline-set! bounce-parens N)
-    Tell Guile to indicate the matching opening parenthesis when you
-    type a closing parenthesis, by resting the cursor on it for N
-    milliseconds.  If N is zero, do not highlight opening parethesis.
-
 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.

configure.in

@@ -93,40 +93,6 @@ if test $ac_cv_func_connect = no; then
     AC_CHECK_LIB(socket, connect)
 fi
 
-dnl Should we check for curses, terminfo, and termlib, too?
-for termlib in ncurses termcap ; do
-   AC_CHECK_LIB(${termlib}, tgoto, 
-                [LIBS="-l${termlib} $LIBS"; break])
-done
-
-AC_ARG_WITH([readline],
-  [  --with-readline         use Readline library for command-line editing],
-  [], [with_readline=yes])
-
-if test "x$with_readline" = "xyes"; then
-  AC_CHECK_LIB(readline, main)
-  AC_CHECK_FUNCS(rl_clear_signals rl_cleanup_after_signal)
-
-  AC_CACHE_CHECK([for rl_getc_function pointer in readline],
-		 ac_cv_var_rl_getc_function,
-		 [AC_TRY_LINK([
-  #include <stdio.h>
-  #include <readline/readline.h>],
-			      [rl_getc_function;],
-			      [ac_cv_var_rl_getc_function=yes],
-			      [ac_cv_var_rl_getc_function=no])])
-  if test "${ac_cv_var_rl_getc_function}" = "yes"; then
-    AC_DEFINE(HAVE_RL_GETC_FUNCTION)
-  fi
-
-  if test $ac_cv_lib_readline_main = yes \
-          -a $ac_cv_var_rl_getc_function = no; then
-    AC_MSG_WARN([Warning: libreadline is too old on your system.  You need])
-    AC_MSG_WARN([readline version 2.1 or later.])
-  fi
-
-fi
-
 # Checks for dynamic linking
 
 if test "$enable_dynamic_linking" = "yes"; then