guile/doc/ref/deprecated.texi

@page
@node Deprecated
@chapter Deprecated

@menu
* Shared And Read Only Strings::
* Sloppy Membership::           `Sloppy' list membership procedures.
* Strange Eval::                Strange variations on @code{eval}.
* Close All Ports::             Closing all ports except some ...
* C Module Reg::                Old method for registering C modules.
* Obarray Symbols::             Obarray symbol manipulation.
* Removed Items::               Previously deprecated, now removed.
@end menu


@node Shared And Read Only Strings
@section Shared And Read Only Strings

The procedures described in this section are deprecated because explicit
shared substrings are planned to disappear from Guile.

Instead, all strings will be implemented using sharing internally,
combined with a copy-on-write strategy.  Once internal string sharing
and copy-on-write have been implemented, it will be unnecessary to
preserve the concept of read only strings.

@menu
* Shared Substrings::           Strings which share memory with each other.
* Read Only Strings::           Treating certain non-strings as strings.
@end menu


@node Shared Substrings
@subsection Shared Substrings

Whenever you extract a substring using @code{substring}, the Scheme
interpreter allocates a new string and copies data from the old string.
This is expensive, but @code{substring} is so convenient for
manipulating text that programmers use it often.

Guile Scheme provides the concept of the @dfn{shared substring} to
improve performance of many substring-related operations.  A shared
substring is an object that mostly behaves just like an ordinary
substring, except that it actually shares storage space with its parent
string.

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} make-shared-substring str [start [end]]
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_make_shared_substring (str, start, end)
Return a shared substring of @var{str}.  The arguments are the
same as for the @code{substring} function: the shared substring
returned includes all of the text from @var{str} between
indexes @var{start} (inclusive) and @var{end} (exclusive).  If
@var{end} is omitted, it defaults to the end of @var{str}.  The
shared substring returned by @code{make-shared-substring}
occupies the same storage space as @var{str}.
@end deffn

Example:

@example
(define foo "the quick brown fox")
(define bar (make-shared-substring some-string 4 9))

foo => "t h e   q u i c k   b r o w n   f o x"
bar =========> |---------|
@end example

The shared substring @var{bar} is not given its own storage space.
Instead, the Guile interpreter notes internally that @var{bar} points to
a portion of the memory allocated to @var{foo}.  However, @var{bar}
behaves like an ordinary string in most respects: it may be used with
string primitives like @code{string-length}, @code{string-ref},
@code{string=?}.  Guile makes the necessary translation between indices
of @var{bar} and indices of @var{foo} automatically.

@example
(string-length? bar) @result{} 5	; bar only extends from indices 4 to 9
(string-ref bar 3)  @result{} #\c	; same as (string-ref foo 7)
(make-shared-substring bar 2)
  @result{} "ick"			; can even make a shared substring!
@end example

Because creating a shared substring does not require allocating new
storage from the heap, it is a very fast operation.  However, because it
shares memory with its parent string, a change to the contents of the
parent string will implicitly change the contents of its shared
substrings.

@example
(string-set! foo 7 #\r)
bar @result{} "quirk"
@end example

Guile considers shared substrings to be immutable.  This is because
programmers might not always be aware that a given string is really a
shared substring, and might innocently try to mutate it without
realizing that the change would affect its parent string.  (We are
currently considering a "copy-on-write" strategy that would permit
modifying shared substrings without affecting the parent string.)

In general, shared substrings are useful in circumstances where it is
important to divide a string into smaller portions, but you do not
expect to change the contents of any of the strings involved.


@node Read Only Strings
@subsection Read Only Strings

In previous versions of Guile, there was the idea that some string-based
primitives such as @code{string-append} could equally accept symbols as
arguments.  For example, one could write

@lisp
(string-append '/home/ 'vigilia)
@end lisp

@noindent
and get @code{"/home/vigilia"} as the result.  The term @dfn{read only
string} was adopted to describe the argument type expected by such
primitives.

This idea has now been removed.  The predicate @code{read-only-string?}
still exists, but deprecated, and is equivalent to

@lisp
(lambda (x) (or (string? x) (symbol? x)))
@end lisp

@noindent
But no Guile primitives now use @code{read-only-string?} to validate
their arguments.

String-based primitives such as @code{string-append}
now require strings:

@lisp
(string-append '/home/ 'vigilia)
@result{}
ERROR: Wrong type argument (expecting STRINGP): /home/
@end lisp

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} read-only-string? obj
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_read_only_string_p (obj)
Return @code{#t} if @var{obj} is either a string or a symbol,
otherwise return @code{#f}.
@end deffn


@node Sloppy Membership
@section `Sloppy' List Membership Procedures

The following are equivalent to @code{memq}, @code{memv} and
@code{member} respectively, except that they do not fully type-check the
arguments that they are given.  They are deprecated because the lack of
proper type-checking makes them dangerous.

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} sloppy-memq x lst
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_sloppy_memq (x, lst)
This procedure behaves like @code{memq}, but does no type or error checking.
Its use is recommended only in writing Guile internals,
not for high-level Scheme programs.
@end deffn

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} sloppy-memv x lst
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_sloppy_memv (x, lst)
This procedure behaves like @code{memv}, but does no type or error checking.
Its use is recommended only in writing Guile internals,
not for high-level Scheme programs.
@end deffn

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} sloppy-member x lst
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_sloppy_member (x, lst)
This procedure behaves like @code{member}, but does no type or error checking.
Its use is recommended only in writing Guile internals,
not for high-level Scheme programs.
@end deffn


@node Strange Eval
@section Strange Variations on @code{eval}

@code{eval2} was useful in previous Guile releases because the
@code{eval} in those releases was a single argument @code{eval} that did
not conform to R5RS.  Guile's standard @code{eval} now requires a second
environment-specifier argument (which Guile interprets as the module in
which to evaluate the specified code expression).  Hence @code{eval} is
now R5RS-compliant, and @code{eval2} is obsolete and therefore
deprecated.

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} eval2 obj env_thunk
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_eval2 (obj, env_thunk)
Evaluate @var{exp}, a Scheme expression, in the environment
designated by @var{lookup}, a symbol-lookup function.
Do not use this version of eval, it does not play well
with the module system.  Use @code{eval} or
@code{primitive-eval} instead.
@end deffn

In previous Guile releases, the implementation of expressions like
@code{(eval (read port))} was deficient in that source properties
associated with the expression returned by the @code{read} would be lost
during the @code{eval}.  To provide a way of performing a read and
evaluation without losing source properties, @code{read-and-eval!} was
invented.

In this Guile release, evaluation always preserves source property
information.  So @code{read-and-eval!} is now unnecessary.

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} read-and-eval! [port]
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_read_and_eval_x (port)
Read a form from @var{port} (standard input by default), and evaluate it
(memoizing it in the process) in the top-level environment.  If no data
is left to be read from @var{port}, an @code{end-of-file} error is
signalled.
@end deffn


@node Close All Ports
@section Closing All Ports Except Some @dots{}

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} close-all-ports-except . ports
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_close_all_ports_except (ports)
[DEPRECATED] Close all open file ports used by the interpreter
except for those supplied as arguments.  This procedure
was intended to be used before an exec call to close file descriptors
which are not needed in the new process.  However it has the
undesirable side effect of flushing buffers, so it's deprecated.
Use port-for-each instead.
@end deffn


@node C Module Reg
@section Old Method for Registering C Modules.

** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.

Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
library to satisfy requests for a module.  For example, the module
`(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
"foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
load path of Guile.

This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported.  The
shared libraries are now called "extensions".  You should now write a
small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
library and initialize it explicitely.

The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".

For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"

    (define-module (foo bar))

    (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")


@node Obarray Symbols
@section Obarray Symbol Manipulation

Guile's module mechanism uses @dfn{obarrays}, which are hash tables that
map symbols to variables.  Guile 1.4 included a group of primitives that
could be used for the manipulation of the symbol-variable mappings in
such obarrays.

However, considering the availability both of low-level procedures for
operating on hash tables in general (@pxref{Hash Tables}), and of a
dedicated API for module-related operations (@pxref{Modules}), the
intermediate set of obarray primitives is no longer useful, and ---
which is worse --- makes it more difficult to evolve the implementation
of Guile's module system.  Hence this set of primitives has now been
deprecated.

If you have code using these functions, please change it to use either
hash table or module-related operations.

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} gentemp [prefix [obarray]]
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_gentemp (prefix, obarray)
Create a new symbol with a name unique in an obarray.
The name is constructed from an optional string @var{prefix}
and a counter value.  The default prefix is @code{t}.  The
@var{obarray} is specified as a second optional argument.
Default is the system obarray where all normal symbols are
interned.  The counter is increased by 1 at each
call.  There is no provision for resetting the counter.
@end deffn

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} intern-symbol obarray string
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_intern_symbol (obarray, string)
Add a new symbol to @var{obarray} with name @var{string}, bound to an
unspecified initial value.  The symbol table is not modified if a symbol
with this name is already present.
@end deffn

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} symbol-interned? obarray string
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_symbol_interned_p (obarray, string)
Return @code{#t} if @var{obarray} contains a symbol with name
@var{string}, and @code{#f} otherwise.
@end deffn

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} unintern-symbol obarray string
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_unintern_symbol (obarray, string)
Remove the symbol with name @var{string} from @var{obarray}.  This
function returns @code{#t} if the symbol was present and @code{#f}
otherwise.
@end deffn

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} string->obarray-symbol obarray string [soft?]
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_string_to_obarray_symbol (obarray, string, soft_p)
Intern a new symbol in @var{obarray}, a symbol table, with name
@var{string}.

If @var{obarray} is @code{#f}, use the default system symbol table.  If
@var{obarray} is @code{#t}, the symbol should not be interned in any
symbol table; merely return the pair (@var{symbol}
. @var{#<undefined>}).

The @var{soft?} argument determines whether new symbol table entries
should be created when the specified symbol is not already present in
@var{obarray}.  If @var{soft?} is specified and is a true value, then
new entries should not be added for symbols not already present in the
table; instead, simply return @code{#f}.
@end deffn

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} symbol-binding obarray string
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_symbol_binding (obarray, string)
Look up in @var{obarray} the symbol whose name is @var{string}, and
return the value to which it is bound.  If @var{obarray} is @code{#f},
use the global symbol table.  If @var{string} is not interned in
@var{obarray}, an error is signalled.
@end deffn

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} symbol-bound? obarray string
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_symbol_bound_p (obarray, string)
Return @code{#t} if @var{obarray} contains a symbol with name
@var{string} bound to a defined value.  This differs from
@var{symbol-interned?} in that the mere mention of a symbol
usually causes it to be interned; @code{symbol-bound?}
determines whether a symbol has been given any meaningful
value.
@end deffn

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} symbol-set! obarray string value
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_symbol_set_x (obarray, string, value)
Find the symbol in @var{obarray} whose name is @var{string}, and rebind
it to @var{value}.  An error is signalled if @var{string} is not present
in @var{obarray}.
@end deffn

@deffn {Deprecated Scheme Procedure} builtin-bindings
@deffnx {Deprecated C Function} scm_builtin_bindings
Create and return a copy of the global symbol table, removing all
unbound symbols.
@end deffn


@node Removed Items
@section Previously Deprecated Items Now Removed

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