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Outdated CHICKEN release
Unit library

Unit library

This unit contains basic Scheme definitions. This unit is used by default, unless the program is compiled with the -explicit-use option.

Arithmetic

add1/sub1

add1 Nprocedure
sub1 Nprocedure: Adds/subtracts 1 from N.

Binary integer operations

bitwise-and N1 ...procedure
bitwise-ior N1 ...procedure
bitwise-xor N1 ...procedure
bitwise-not Nprocedure
arithmetic-shift N1 N2procedure: Binary integer operations. arithmetic-shift shifts the argument N1 by N2 bits to the left. If N2 is negative, then N1 is shifted to the right. These operations only accept exact integers or inexact integers in word range (32 bit signed on 32-bit platforms, or 64 bit signed on 64-bit platforms).

bit-set?

bit-set? N INDEXprocedure: Returns #t if the bit at the position INDEX in the integer N is set, or #f otherwise. The rightmost/least-significant bit is bit 0.

Arithmetic fixnum operations

fx+ N1 N2procedure

fx- N1 N2procedure

fx* N1 N2procedure

fx/ N1 N2procedure

fxmod N1 N2procedure

fxneg Nprocedure

fxmin N1 N2procedure

fxmax N1 N2procedure

fxand N1 N2procedure

fxior N1 N2procedure

fxxor N1 N2procedure

fxnot Nprocedure

fxshl N1 N2procedure

fxshr N1 N2procedure

fx+ and friends are arithmetic fixnum operations. These procedures do not check their arguments, so non-fixnum parameters will result in incorrect results. fxneg negates its argument.

On division by zero, fx/ and fxmod signal a condition of kind (exn arithmetic).

fxshl and fxshr perform arithmetic shift left and right, respectively.

Fixnum comparison and predicates

fxodd? Nprocedure
fxeven? Nprocedure
fx= N1 N2procedure
fx> N1 N2procedure
fx< N1 N2procedure
fx>= N1 N2procedure
fx<= N1 N2procedure: Comparison of fixnums and predicates on them.

fixnum?

fixnum? Xprocedure: Returns #t if X is a fixnum, or #f otherwise.

Fixnum limits

most-positive-fixnumconstant
most-negative-fixnumconstant
fixnum-bitsconstant
fixnum-precisionconstant: Platform-specific fixnum limits.

Arithmetic floating-point operations

fp+ X Yprocedure

fp- X Yprocedure

fp* X Yprocedure

fp/ X Yprocedure

fpneg Xprocedure

fpmin X Yprocedure

fpmax X Yprocedure

fp= X Yprocedure

fp> X Yprocedure

fp< X Yprocedure

fp>= X Yprocedure

fp<= X Yprocedure

fpfloor Xprocedure

fpceiling Xprocedure

fptruncate Xprocedure

fpround Xprocedure

fpsin Xprocedure

fpcos Xprocedure

fptan Xprocedure

fpasin Xprocedure

fpacos Xprocedure

fpatan Xprocedure

fpatan2 X Yprocedure

fplog Xprocedure

fpexp Xprocedure

fpexpt X Yprocedure

fpsqrt Xprocedure

fpabs Xprocedure

fpinteger? Xprocedure

Arithmetic floating-point operations.

In safe mode, these procedures throw a type error when given non-float arguments. In unsafe mode, these procedures do not check their arguments. A non-flonum argument in unsafe mode can crash the application.

Note: fpround uses the rounding mode that your C library implements, which is usually different from R5RS.

flonum?

flonum? Xprocedure: Returns #t if X is a flonum, or #f otherwise.

Flonum limits

maximum-flonumconstant
minimum-flonumconstant
flonum-radixconstant
flonum-epsilonconstant
flonum-precisionconstant
flonum-decimal-precisionconstant
flonum-maximum-exponentconstant
flonum-minimum-exponentconstant
flonum-maximum-decimal-exponentconstant
flonum-minimum-decimal-exponentconstant: Platform-specific flonum limits.

flonum-print-precision #!optional PRECISIONprocedure

Gets and sets the number of significant digits printed for a floating-point number. PRECISION must be a positive fixnum. Returns the setting that was previously in effect.

The default print precision is 15 on nearly all systems, and 7 on the rare system on which the double type is only single-precision.

Note: To ensure read/write invariance for all floating-point numbers, you must increase print precision from 15 to 17 (or from 7 to 9). For example:

> (define a (expt 2 -53))
> (define b (+ a (* 2 (expt 10 -32))))
> (eqv? a b)
#f
> (flonum-print-precision 15)
> (cons a b)
(1.11022302462516e-16 .
 1.11022302462516e-16)            ;; same printed representation
> (flonum-print-precision 17)
> (cons a b)
(1.1102230246251565e-16 .
 1.1102230246251568e-16)          ;; differs in last place

On the downside, this will result in unnecessarily precise representations of many numbers:

> (flonum-print-precision 17)
> 0.1
0.10000000000000001

The maximum number of decimal digits required to uniquely represent all floating-point numbers of a certain precision is given by the formula ceil(1+N*log10(2)), where N is the number of bits of precision; for double-precision, N=53.

finite?

finite? Nprocedure: Returns #f if N is negative or positive infinity, and #t otherwise.

signum

signum Nprocedure: Returns 1 if N is positive, -1 if N is negative or 0 if N is zero. signum is exactness preserving.

File Input/Output

current-output-port

current-output-port #!optional PORTprocedure

Returns default output port. If PORT is given, then that port is selected as the new current output port.

Note that the default output port is not buffered. Use set-buffering-mode! if you need a different behavior.

current-error-port

current-error-port #!optional PORTprocedure

Returns default error output port. If PORT is given, then that port is selected as the new current error output port.

Note that the default error output port is not buffered. Use set-buffering-mode! if you need a different behavior.

flush-output

flush-output #!optional PORTprocedure: Write buffered output to the given output-port. PORT defaults to the value of (current-output-port).

port-closed?

port-closed? PORTprocedure: Is the given PORT closed?

port-name

port-name #!optional PORTprocedure: Fetch filename from PORT. This returns the filename that was used to open this file. Returns a special tag string, enclosed into parentheses for non-file ports. PORT defaults to the value of (current-input-port).

port-position

port-position #!optional PORTprocedure: Returns the current position of PORT as two values: row and column number. If the port does not support such an operation an error is signaled. This procedure is currently only available for input ports. PORT defaults to the value of (current-input-port).

set-port-name!

set-port-name! PORT STRINGprocedure: Sets the name of PORT to STRING.

Files

delete-file

delete-file STRINGprocedure: Deletes the file with the pathname STRING. If the file does not exist, an error is signaled.

directory-exists?

directory-exists? STRINGprocedure: Returns STRING if a directory with the given pathname exists, or #f otherwise.

file-exists?

file-exists? STRINGprocedure: Returns STRING if a file or directory with the given pathname exists, or #f otherwise.

rename-file

rename-file OLD NEWprocedure: Renames the file or directory with the pathname OLD to NEW. If the operation does not succeed, an error is signaled.

String ports

get-output-string

get-output-string PORTprocedure: Returns accumulated output of a port created with (open-output-string).

open-input-string

open-input-string STRINGprocedure: Returns a port for reading from STRING.

open-output-string

open-output-stringprocedure: Returns a port for accumulating output in a string.

Feature identifiers

CHICKEN maintains a global list of features naming functionality available in the current system. Additionally the cond-expand form accesses this feature list to infer what features are provided. Predefined features are chicken, and the SRFIs (Scheme Request For Implementation) provided by the base system: srfi-23, srfi-30, srfi-39. If the eval unit is used (the default), the features srfi-0, srfi-2, srfi-6, srfi-8, srfi-9 and srfi-10 are defined. When compiling code (during compile-time) the feature compiling is registered. When evaluating code in the interpreter (csi), the feature csi is registered.

features

featuresprocedure: Returns a list of all registered features that will be accepted as valid feature-identifiers by cond-expand.

feature?

feature? ID ...procedure: Returns #t if all features with the given feature-identifiers ID ... are registered.

register-feature!

register-feature! FEATURE ...procedure: Register one or more features that will be accepted as valid feature-identifiers by cond-expand. FEATURE ... may be a keyword, string or symbol.

unregister-feature!

unregister-feature! FEATURE ...procedure: Unregisters the specified feature-identifiers. FEATURE ... may be a keyword, string or symbol.

Keywords

Keywords are special symbols prefixed with #: that evaluate to themselves. Procedures can use keywords to accept optional named parameters in addition to normal required parameters. Assignment to and bindings of keyword symbols is not allowed. The parameter keyword-style and the compiler/interpreter option -keyword-style can be used to allow an additional keyword syntax, either compatible to Common LISP, or to DSSSL. As long as this parameter is set to #:suffix, CHICKEN conforms to SRFI-88.

get-keyword

get-keyword KEYWORD ARGLIST #!optional THUNKprocedure

Returns the argument from ARGLIST specified under the keyword KEYWORD. If the keyword is not found, then the zero-argument procedure THUNK is invoked and the result value is returned. If THUNK is not given, #f is returned.

(define (increase x . args)
  (+ x (get-keyword #:amount args (lambda () 1))) )
(increase 123)                                      ==> 124
(increase 123 #:amount 10)                          ==> 133

Note: the KEYWORD may actually be any kind of object.

keyword?

keyword? Xprocedure: Returns #t if X is a keyword symbol, or #f otherwise.

keyword->string

keyword->string KEYWORDprocedure: Transforms KEYWORD into a string.

string->keyword

string->keyword STRINGprocedure: Returns a keyword with the name STRING.

Environment information and system interface

argv

argvprocedure: Return a list of all supplied command-line arguments. The first item in the list is a string containing the name of the executing program. The other items are the arguments passed to the application. It depends on the host-shell whether arguments are expanded ('globbed') or not.

exit

exit #!optional CODEprocedure

Exit the running process and return exit-code, which defaults to 0 (Invokes exit-handler).

Note that pending dynamic-wind thunks are not invoked when exiting your program in this way.

build-platform

build-platformprocedure

Returns a symbol specifying the toolset which has been used for building the executing system, which is one of the following:

cygwin
mingw32
gnu
intel
clang
sun
metrowerks
watcom
unknown

chicken-version

chicken-version #!optional FULLprocedure: Returns a string containing the version number of the CHICKEN runtime system. If the optional argument FULL is given and true, then a full version string is returned.

errno

errnoprocedure: Returns the error code of the last system call.

get-environment-variable

get-environment-variable STRINGprocedure: Returns the value of the environment variable STRING or #f if that variable is not defined. See also SRFI-98.

machine-byte-order

machine-byte-orderprocedure: Returns the symbol little-endian or big-endian, depending on the machine's byte-order.

machine-type

machine-typeprocedure

Returns a symbol specifying the processor on which this process is currently running, which is one of the following:

arm
alpha
mips
hppa
ultrasparc
sparc
ppc
ppc64
ia64
x86
x86-64
unknown

on-exit

on-exit THUNKprocedure: Schedules the zero-argument procedures THUNK to be executed before the process exits, either explicitly via exit or implicitly after execution of the last top-level form. Note that finalizers for unreferenced finalized data are run before exit procedures.

software-type

software-typeprocedure

Returns a symbol specifying the operating system on which this process is currently running, which is one of the following:

android
windows
unix
ecos
unknown

software-version

software-versionprocedure

Returns a symbol specifying the operating system version on which this process is currently running, which is one of the following:

linux
freebsd
netbsd
openbsd
macosx
hpux
dragonfly
haiku
solaris
sunos
aix
hurd
unknown

system

system STRINGprocedure

Execute shell command. The functionality offered by this procedure depends on the capabilities of the host shell. If the forking of a subprocess failed, an exception is raised. Otherwise the return status of the subprocess is returned unaltered.

On a UNIX system, that value is the raw return value of waitpid(2), which contains signal, core dump and exit status. It is 0 on success. To pull out the signal number or exit status portably requires POSIX calls, but in a pinch you can use something like this:

;; Returns two values: #t if the process exited normally or #f otherwise;
;; and either the exit status, or the signal number if terminated via signal.
(define (process-status rc)
  (define (wait-signaled? x) (not (= 0 (bitwise-and x 127))))
  (define (wait-signal x) (bitwise-and x 127))
  (define (wait-exit-status x) (arithmetic-shift x -8))
  (if (wait-signaled? rc)
      (values #f (wait-signal rc))
      (values #t (wait-exit-status rc))))

#;> (process-status (system "exit 42"))
#t
42

Execution time

cpu-time

cpu-timeprocedure: Returns the used CPU time of the current process in milliseconds as two values: the time spent in user code, and the time spent in system code. On platforms where user and system time can not be differentiated, system time will be always be 0.

current-milliseconds

current-millisecondsprocedure: Returns the number of milliseconds since process- or machine startup.

current-seconds

current-secondsprocedure: Returns the number of seconds since midnight, Jan. 1, 1970.

current-gc-milliseconds

current-gc-millisecondsprocedure: Returns the number of milliseconds spent in major garbage collections since the last call of current-gc-milliseconds and returns an exact integer.

Interrupts and error-handling

enable-warnings

enable-warnings #!optional BOOLprocedure: Enables or disables warnings, depending on wether BOOL is true or false. If called with no arguments, this procedure returns #t if warnings are currently enabled, or #f otherwise. Note that this is not a parameter. The current state (whether warnings are enabled or disabled) is global and not thread-local.

error

(error [LOCATION] [STRING] EXP ...)procedure: Prints error message, writes all extra arguments to the value of (current-error-port) and invokes the current exception-handler. This conforms to SRFI-23. If LOCATION is given and a symbol, it specifies the location (the name of the procedure) where the error occurred.

get-call-chain

get-call-chain #!optional START THREADprocedure: Returns a list with the call history. Backtrace information is only generated in code compiled without -no-trace and evaluated code. If the optional argument START is given, the backtrace starts at this offset, i.e. when START is 1, the next to last trace-entry is printed, and so on. If the optional argument THREAD is given, then the call-chain will only be constructed for calls performed by this thread.

print-call-chain

print-call-chain #!optional PORT START THREAD HEADERprocedure: Prints a backtrace of the procedure call history to PORT, which defaults to (current-output-port). The output is prefixed by the HEADER, which defaults to "\n\tCall history:\n".

print-error-message

print-error-message EXN #!optional PORT HEADERprocedure: Prints an appropriate error message to PORT (which defaults to the value of (current-output-port) for the object EXN. EXN may be a condition, a string or any other object. The output is prefixed by the HEADER, which defaults to "Error:".

procedure-information

procedure-information PROCprocedure: Returns an s-expression with debug information for the procedure PROC, or #f, if PROC has no associated debug information.

quit

quit #!optional RESULTprocedure: In the interpreter quit exits the currently active read-eval-print loop. In compiled code, it is equivalent to calling exit. See also: repl.

reset

resetprocedure: Reset program (Invokes reset-handler).

warning

warning STRING EXP ...procedure: Displays a warning message (if warnings are enabled with enable-warnings) and continues execution.

Garbage collection

gc

gc #!optional FLAGprocedure: Invokes a garbage-collection and returns the number of free bytes in the heap. The flag specifies whether a minor (#f) or major (#t) GC is to be triggered. If no argument is given, #t is assumed. An explicit #t argument will cause all pending finalizers to be executed.

memory-statistics

memory-statisticsprocedure: Performs a major garbage collection and returns a three element vector containing the total heap size in bytes, the number of bytes currently used and the size of the nursery (the first heap generation). Note that the actual heap is actually twice the size given in the heap size, because CHICKEN uses a copying semi-space collector.

set-finalizer!

set-finalizer! X PROCprocedure

Registers a procedure of one argument PROC, that will be called as soon as the non-immediate data object X is about to be garbage-collected (with that object as its argument). Note that the finalizer will not be called while interrupts are disabled. This procedure returns X.

Finalizers are invoked asynchronously, in the thread that happens to be currently running. Finalizers for data that has become garbage are called on normal program exit. Finalizers are not run on abnormal program exit. A normal program exit does not run finalizers that are still reachable from global data.

Multiple finalizers can be registered for the same object. The order in which the finalizers run is undefined. Execution of finalizers may be nested.

set-gc-report!

set-gc-report! FLAGprocedure: Print statistics after every GC, depending on FLAG. A value of #t shows statistics after every major GC. A true value different from #t shows statistics after every minor GC. #f switches statistics off.

Other predicates and comparison operations

promise?

promise? Xprocedure: Returns #t if X is a promise returned by delay, or #f otherwise.

equal=?

equal=? X yprocedure: Similar to the standard procedure equal?, but compares numbers using the = operator, so equal=? allows structural comparison in combination with comparison of numerical data by value.

String utilities

reverse-list->string

reverse-list->string LISTprocedure: Returns a string with the characters in LIST in reverse order. This is equivalent to (list->string (reverse LIST)), but much more efficient.

Symbols

Symbol utilities

symbol-append

symbol-append SYMBOL1 ...procedure: Creates a new symbol from the concatenated names of the argument symbols (SYMBOL1 ...).

Uninterned symbols ("gensyms")

Symbols may be "interned" or "uninterned". Interned symbols are registered in a global table, and when read back from a port are identical to a symbol written before:

(define sym 'foo)

(eq? sym (with-input-from-string
            (with-output-to-string 
              (lambda () (write sym)))
	    read))

  => #t

Uninterned symbols on the other hand are not globally registered and so multiple symbols with the same name may coexist:

(define sym (gensym 'foo))   ; sym is a uninterned symbol like "foo42"

(eq? sym (with-input-from-string    ; the symbol read will be an interned symbol
            (with-output-to-string 
              (lambda () (write sym)))
	    read))

  => #f

(eq? (string->uninterned-symbol "foo") (string->uninterned-symbol "foo"))

  => #f

Use uninterned symbols if you need to generate unique values that can be compared quickly, for example as keys into a hash-table or association list. Note that uninterned symbols lose their uniqueness property when written to a file and read back in, as in the example above.

gensym

gensym #!optional STRING-OR-SYMBOLprocedure: Returns a newly created uninterned symbol. If an argument is provided, the new symbol is prefixed with that argument.

string->uninterned-symbol

string->uninterned-symbol STRINGprocedure: Returns a newly created, unique symbol with the name STRING.

Property lists

As in other Lisp dialects, CHICKEN supports "property lists" associated with symbols. Properties are accessible via a key that can be any kind of value but which will be compared using eq?.

get

get SYMBOL PROPERTY #!optional DEFAULTprocedure: Returns the value stored under the key PROPERTY in the property list of SYMBOL. If no such property is stored, returns DEFAULT. The DEFAULT is optional and defaults to #f.

put!

put! SYMBOL PROPERTY VALUEprocedure

setter: (set! (get SYMBOL PROPERTY) VALUE)

Stores VALUE under the key PROPERTY in the property list of SYMBOL replacing any previously stored value.

remprop!

remprop! SYMBOL PROPERTYprocedure: Deletes the first property matching the key PROPERTY in the property list of SYMBOL. Returns #t when a deletion performed, and #f otherwise.

symbol-plist

symbol-plist SYMBOLprocedure

setter: (set! (symbol-plist SYMBOL) LST)

Returns the property list of SYMBOL or sets it.

get-properties

get-properties SYMBOL PROPERTIESprocedure

Searches the property list of SYMBOL for the first property with a key in the list PROPERTIES. Returns 3 values: the matching property key, value, and the tail of property list after the matching property. When no match found all values are #f.

PROPERTIES may also be an atom, in which case it is treated as a list of one element.

Standard Input/Output

port?

port? Xprocedure: Returns #t if X is a port object or #f otherwise.

print

(print [EXP1 ...])procedure: Outputs the optional arguments EXP1 ... using display and writes a newline character to the port that is the value of (current-output-port). Returns (void).

print*

(print* [EXP1 ...])procedure: Similar to print, but does not output a terminating newline character and performs a flush-output after writing its arguments.

User-defined named characters

char-name

char-name SYMBOL-OR-CHAR #!optional CHARprocedure

This procedure can be used to inquire about character names or to define new ones. With a single argument the behavior is as follows: If SYMBOL-OR-CHAR is a symbol, then char-name returns the character with this name, or #f if no character is defined under this name. If SYMBOL-OR-CHAR is a character, then the name of the character is returned as a symbol, or #f if the character has no associated name.

If the optional argument CHAR is provided, then SYMBOL-OR-CHAR should be a symbol that will be the new name of the given character. If multiple names designate the same character, then the write will use the character name that was defined last.

(char-name 'space)                  ==> #\space
(char-name #\space)                 ==> space
(char-name 'bell)                   ==> #f
(char-name (integer->char 7))       ==> #f
(char-name 'bell (integer->char 7))
(char-name 'bell)                   ==> #\bell
(char->integer (char-name 'bell))   ==> 7

Blobs

"blobs" are collections of unstructured bytes. You can't do much with them, but allow conversion to and from SRFI-4 number vectors.

make-blob

make-blob SIZEprocedure: Returns a blob object of SIZE bytes, aligned on an 8-byte boundary, uninitialized.

blob?

blob? Xprocedure: Returns #t if X is a blob object, or #f otherwise.

blob-size

blob-size BLOBprocedure: Returns the number of bytes in BLOB.

blob->string

blob->string BLOBprocedure: Returns a string with the contents of BLOB.

string->blob

string->blob STRINGprocedure: Returns a blob with the contents of STRING.

blob=?

blob=? BLOB1 BLOB2procedure: Returns #t if the two argument blobs are of the same size and have the same content.

Lists

foldl

foldl PROCEDURE INIT LISTprocedure

Applies PROCEDURE to the elements from LIST, beginning from the left:

(foldl + 0 '(1 2 3))    ==>    (+ (+ (+ 0 1) 2) 3)

Note that the order of arguments taken by PROCEDURE is different from the SRFI-1 fold procedure, but matches the more natural order used in Haskell and Objective Caml.

foldr

foldr PROCEDURE INIT LISTprocedure

Applies PROCEDURE to the elements from LIST, beginning from the right:

(foldr + 0 '(1 2 3))    ==>    (+ 1 (+ 2 (+ 3 0)))

Vectors

vector-copy!

vector-copy! VECTOR1 VECTOR2 #!optional COUNTprocedure

Copies contents of VECTOR1 into VECTOR2. If the argument COUNT is given, it specifies the maximal number of elements to be copied. If not given, the minimum of the lengths of the argument vectors is copied.

Exceptions: (exn bounds)

vector-resize

vector-resize VECTOR N #!optional INITprocedure: Creates and returns a new vector with the contents of VECTOR and length N. If N is greater than the original length of VECTOR, then all additional items are initialized to INIT. If INIT is not specified, the contents are initialized to some unspecified value.

subvector

subvector VECTOR FROM #!optional TOprocedure

Returns a new vector with elements taken from VECTOR in the given range. TO defaults to (vector-length VECTOR).

subvector was introduced in CHICKEN 4.7.3.

The unspecified value

void

void ARGUMENT ...procedure: Ignores ARGUMENT ... and returns an unspecified value.

Continuations

call/cc

call/cc PROCEDUREprocedure: An alias for call-with-current-continuation.

continuation-capture

continuation-capture PROCEDUREprocedure

Creates a continuation object representing the current continuation and tail-calls PROCEDURE with this continuation as the single argument.

More information about this continuation API can be found in the paper http://repository.readscheme.org/ftp/papers/sw2001/feeley.pdf A Better API for first class Continuations by Marc Feeley.

continuation?

continuation? Xprocedure: Returns #t if X is a continuation object, or #f otherwise. Please note that this applies only to continuations created by the Continuation API, but not by call/cc, i.e.: (call-with-current-continuation continuation?) returns #f, whereas (continuation-capture continuation?) returns #t.

continuation-graft

continuation-graft CONT THUNKprocedure: Calls the procedure THUNK with no arguments and the implicit continuation CONT.

continuation-return

continuation-return CONT VALUE ...procedure

Returns the value(s) to the continuation CONT. continuation-return could be implemented like this:

(define (continuation-return k . vals)
  (continuation-graft
    k
    (lambda () (apply values vals)) ) )

Setters

SRFI-17 is fully implemented. For more information see: SRFI-17.

setter

setter PROCEDUREprocedure

Returns the setter-procedure of PROCEDURE, or signals an error if PROCEDURE has no associated setter-procedure.

Note that (set! (setter PROC) ...) for a procedure that has no associated setter procedure yet is a very slow operation (the old procedure is replaced by a modified copy, which involves a garbage collection).

getter-with-setter

getter-with-setter GETTER SETTERprocedure: Returns a copy of the procedure GETTER with the associated setter procedure SETTER. Contrary to the SRFI specification, the setter of the returned procedure may be changed.

Reader extensions

define-reader-ctor

define-reader-ctor SYMBOL PROCprocedure: Define new read-time constructor for #, read syntax. For further information, see the documentation for SRFI-10.

set-read-syntax!

set-read-syntax! CHAR-OR-SYMBOL PROCprocedure

When the reader encounters the non-whitespace character CHAR while reading an expression from a given port, then the procedure PROC will be called with that port as its argument. The procedure should return a value that will be returned to the reader:

 ; A simple RGB color syntax:

 (set-read-syntax! #\%
   (lambda (port)
     (apply vector
       (map (cut string->number <> 16)
	    (string-chop (read-string 6 port) 2) ) ) ) )

 (with-input-from-string "(1 2 %f0f0f0 3)" read)
 ; ==> (1 2 #(240 240 240) 3)

If CHAR-OR-SYMBOL is a symbol, then a so-called read-mark handler is defined. In that case the handler procedure will be called when a character-sequence of the form #!SYMBOL is encountered.

You can undo special handling of read-syntax by passing #f as the second argument (if the syntax was previously defined via set-read-syntax!).

As a special case, your handler can return zero values, via (values). This causes the reader to completely ignore whatever input you've read, rather than returning some possibly unspecified value. This can be useful in macro context, reading comments, conditional compilation, and so forth. Available in CHICKEN 4.6.6 and later.

Note that all of CHICKEN's special non-standard read-syntax is handled directly by the reader. To disable built-in read-syntax, define a handler that triggers an error (for example).

set-sharp-read-syntax!

set-sharp-read-syntax! CHAR-OR-SYMBOL PROCprocedure

Similar to set-read-syntax!, but allows defining new #<CHAR> ... reader syntax. If the first argument is a symbol, then this procedure is equivalent to set-read-syntax!.

PROC may be #f to disable previously defined "sharp" read syntax.

set-parameterized-read-syntax!

set-parameterized-read-syntax! CHAR-OR-SYMBOL PROCprocedure

Similar to set-sharp-read-syntax!, but intended for defining reader syntax of the form #<NUMBER><CHAR> .... The handler procedure PROC will be called with two arguments: the input port and the number preceding the dispatching character. If the first argument is a symbol, then this procedure is equivalent to set-read-syntax!.

PROC may be #f to disable previously defined parameterized read syntax.

copy-read-table

copy-read-table READ-TABLEprocedure: Returns a copy of the given read-table. You can access the currently active read-table with (current-read-table).

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