| @c -*-texinfo-*- | |
| @c This is part of the GNU Guile Reference Manual. | |
| @c Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2018 | |
| @c Free Software Foundation, Inc. | |
| @c See the file guile.texi for copying conditions. | |
| @node Preface | |
| @unnumbered Preface | |
| This manual describes how to use Guile, GNU's Ubiquitous Intelligent | |
| Language for Extensions. It relates particularly to Guile version | |
| @value{VERSION}. | |
| @menu | |
| * Contributors:: | |
| * Guile License:: | |
| @end menu | |
| @node Contributors | |
| @unnumberedsec Contributors to this Manual | |
| Like Guile itself, the Guile reference manual is a living entity, cared | |
| for by many people over a long period of time. As such, it is hard to | |
| identify individuals of whom to say ``yes, this single person wrote the | |
| manual.'' | |
| Still, among the many contributions, some caretakers stand out. First | |
| among them is Neil Jerram, who has worked on this document for over ten | |
| years. Neil's attention both to detail and to the big picture have made | |
| a real difference in the understanding of a generation of Guile hackers. | |
| Next we should note Marius Vollmer's effect on this document. Marius | |
| maintained Guile during a period in which Guile's API was | |
| clarified---put to the fire, so to speak---and he had the good sense to | |
| effect the same change on the manual. | |
| Martin Grabmueller made substantial contributions throughout the manual | |
| in preparation for the Guile 1.6 release, including filling out a lot of | |
| the documentation of Scheme data types, control mechanisms and | |
| procedures. In addition, he wrote the documentation for Guile's SRFI | |
| modules and modules associated with the Guile REPL. | |
| Ludovic Court@`es and Andy Wingo, who co-maintain Guile since 2010, | |
| along with Mark Weaver, have also made their dent in the manual, writing | |
| documentation for new modules and subsystems that arrived with Guile | |
| 2.0. Ludovic, Andy, and Mark are also responsible for ensuring that the | |
| existing text retains its relevance as Guile evolves. @xref{Reporting | |
| Bugs}, for more information on reporting problems in this manual. | |
| The content for the first versions of this manual incorporated and was | |
| inspired by documents from Aubrey Jaffer, author of the SCM system on | |
| which Guile was based, and from Tom Lord, Guile's first maintainer. | |
| Although most of this text has been rewritten, all of it was important, | |
| and some of the structure remains. | |
| The manual for the first versions of Guile were largely written, edited, | |
| and compiled by Mark Galassi and Jim Blandy. In particular, Jim wrote | |
| the original tutorial on Guile's data representation and the C API for | |
| accessing Guile objects. | |
| Significant portions were also contributed by Thien-Thi Nguyen, Kevin | |
| Ryde, Mikael Djurfeldt, Christian Lynbech, Julian Graham, Gary Houston, | |
| Tim Pierce, and a few dozen more. You, reader, are most welcome to join | |
| their esteemed ranks. Visit Guile's web site at | |
| @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/} to find out how to get | |
| involved. | |
| @node Guile License | |
| @unnumberedsec The Guile License | |
| @cindex copying | |
| @cindex GPL | |
| @cindex LGPL | |
| @cindex license | |
| Guile is Free Software. Guile is copyrighted, not public domain, and | |
| there are restrictions on its distribution or redistribution, but | |
| these restrictions are designed to permit everything a cooperating | |
| person would want to do. | |
| @itemize @bullet | |
| @item | |
| The Guile library (libguile) and supporting files are published under | |
| the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 or later. | |
| See the files @file{COPYING.LESSER} and @file{COPYING}. | |
| @item | |
| The Guile readline module is published under the terms of the GNU | |
| General Public License version 3 or later. See the file @file{COPYING}. | |
| @item | |
| The manual you're now reading is published under the terms of the GNU | |
| Free Documentation License (@pxref{GNU Free Documentation License}). | |
| @end itemize | |
| C code linking to the Guile library is subject to terms of that | |
| library. Basically such code may be published on any terms, provided | |
| users can re-link against a new or modified version of Guile. | |
| C code linking to the Guile readline module is subject to the terms of | |
| that module. Basically such code must be published on Free terms. | |
| Scheme level code written to be run by Guile (but not derived from | |
| Guile itself) is not restricted in any way, and may be published on any | |
| terms. We encourage authors to publish on Free terms. | |
| You must be aware there is no warranty whatsoever for Guile. This is | |
| described in full in the licenses. | |
| @c Local Variables: | |
| @c TeX-master: "guile.texi" | |
| @c End: | |