Reverting to global scope in macro in clojure? - macros

I want to make a macro which defines a function outside of the local variable scope, as to catch errors where the programmer (aka me) is incorrectly referencing variables in the local scope. It should only allow variables declared in the first argument of the macro.
For example, the following should compile fine:
(let [ foo 'x
bar 'y ]
(my-macro [ foo ] ;; this designates that foo can be used
(print foo)
)
)
but, the following should fail to compile, because "bar" wasn't declared in the first argument of my-macro:
(let [ foo 'x
bar 'y ]
(my-macro [ foo ] ;; only foo is declared here, but bar
;; is used, so should fail to compile
(print foo)
(print bar) ;; <-- should fail here
)
)
Besides the error checking, the macro needs to return a vector of the values of the variables used and a function containing the body. This is what I have so far.
(defmacro my-macro
[ declared-vars-in-use & body ]
`[~declared-vars-in-use (fn [~#declared-vars-in-use]
~#body
)
]
)
The only thing I don't know how to do is enforce the compilation error when referencing a symbol from the local scope that isn't declared in my-macro ("bar" in the above example). Forgive me if I'm using incorrect terms, and hopefully you can understand this, I am still a newbie at clojure.

(Updated with a version of explicit-closure free from the considerable limitations of the original approach.)
The macro below returns a function which closes over the specified locals and accepts specified additional arguments. If you only want a function which doesn't close over any locals at all (in other words, whose body only uses no external locals), which is what my-macro would produce if given the desired ability to prevent access to locals not on the declared-vars-in-use list (as the locals on the list would be shadowed by the parameters), you can simply eval an appropriate fn form, as eval ignores locals. (So, skip close-over and the let around the inner list* in the snippet below.)
(defmacro explicit-closure [close-over params & body]
(eval (list 'let
(vec (interleave close-over (repeat nil)))
(list* 'fn params body)))
`[~close-over (fn [~#params] ~#body)])
Note that the call to eval here happens during compilation and is only meant to coax the compiler into complaining if the function body references the wrong locals. If the body does not use disallowed locals or otherwise cause the eval call to fail, regular code for the function is emitted with no further checks or eval-induced compilation at runtime.
From the REPL:
(let [foo 1
bar 2]
(explicit-closure [foo] [x] (+ foo x)))
;= [[1] #<user$eval1887$fn__1888 user$eval1887$fn__1888#39c4d0cd>]
(let [foo 1
bar 2]
(let [[vals f] (explicit-closure [foo] [x] (+ foo x))]
(prn vals)
(f 3)))
;=> [1]
;= 4
;;; replace (+ foo x) with (+ foo bar x) in the above
;;; to get a CompilerException

Related

Which is the easiest way to extend a Lisp with a small correction in the evaluation?

I would like to try extending some Lisp (Scheme, Racket, Clojure, any) to run external commands as follows:
; having
(define foo ...)
(define bar ...)
; on command
(ls (foo bar) baz)
; this lisp should evaluate (foo bar) as usual, with result "foobar", then
(ls foobar baz)
; here "ls" is not defined
; instead of rising "undefined identifier" exception
; it must look for "ls" command in the directories
; in the "PATH" environment variable
; and launch the first found "ls" command
; with strings "foobar" and "baz" on input
I just want to run it anyhow, without carrying about correct conversion from lisp's data structures to strings or handling the exit code and the output of the command in stdout/stderr.
I think there is no way to extend it within normal environment (like catching the "undefined" exception all the time). The eval procedure of the interpreter itself must be changed.
Which Lisp is the best to extend it like this and how is it done? Maybe there already exists a project performing something similar?
Common Lisp has a standard error system which may be used to implement that.
In Common Lisp implementations which provide a use-value or store-value restart for errors of type undefined-function.
Example
CL-USER 69 > (flet ((call-use-value-restart (c)
(use-value (lambda (arg)
(format t "~%dummy function with arg ~a~%" arg))
c)))
(handler-bind ((undefined-function #'call-use-value-restart))
(this-function-does-not-exist "foo")))
dummy function with arg foo
NIL
In the above example the function this-function-does-not-exist does not exist. As you can see, the error is handled and another function is called instead, which then does some output.
If we call the undefined function on its own, we get an error:
CL-USER 70 > (this-function-does-not-exist "foo")
Error: Undefined operator THIS-FUNCTION-DOES-NOT-EXIST in form (THIS-FUNCTION-DOES-NOT-EXIST "foo").
1 (continue) Try invoking THIS-FUNCTION-DOES-NOT-EXIST again.
2 Return some values from the form (THIS-FUNCTION-DOES-NOT-EXIST "foo").
3 Try invoking something other than THIS-FUNCTION-DOES-NOT-EXIST with the same arguments.
4 Set the symbol-function of THIS-FUNCTION-DOES-NOT-EXIST to another function.
5 Set the macro-function of THIS-FUNCTION-DOES-NOT-EXIST to another function.
6 (abort) Return to top loop level 0.
Type :b for backtrace or :c <option number> to proceed.
Type :bug-form "<subject>" for a bug report template or :? for other options.
CL-USER 71 : 1 >
Our example basically calls the restart number 3 programmatically:
It binds a handler which calls the function call-use-value-restart when an error of type undefined-function happens.
The function call-use-value-restart then calls the use-value restart with a function it provides. Here you could provide a function which calls an external program of the name given by (cell-error-name c). The use-value restart then just calls the provided function and keeps on executing the program as usual.
Hint for a solution
Typically one would write a small top-level loop where such a handler is provided.
Another way to call the restart
In this example we use a hook to add a handler in case an error happens. Here we use the global variable *debugger-hook*. This should be a function and in our case it calls a new function when the condition c is of type undefined-function.
* (defun provide-a-function-hook (c hook)
(declare (ignore hook))
(typecase c
(undefined-function (use-value (lambda (arg)
(format t "~%dummy function with arg ~a~%" arg))
c))))
PROVIDE-A-FUNCTION-HOOK
* (setf *debugger-hook* #'provide-a-function-hook)
#<FUNCTION PROVIDE-A-FUNCTION-HOOK>
* (this-function-does-not-exist "foo")
; in: THIS-FUNCTION-DOES-NOT-EXIST "foo"
; (THIS-FUNCTION-DOES-NOT-EXIST "foo")
;
; caught STYLE-WARNING:
; undefined function: THIS-FUNCTION-DOES-NOT-EXIST
;
; compilation unit finished
; Undefined function:
; THIS-FUNCTION-DOES-NOT-EXIST
; caught 1 STYLE-WARNING condition
dummy function with arg foo
NIL
In racket you may override #%top:
#lang racket
(provide
(combine-out
(except-out (all-from-out racket) #%top)
(rename-out [shell-curry #%top])))
(require racket/system)
(define (stringify a)
(~a (if (cmd? a) (cmd-name a) a)))
(struct cmd (name proc)
#:property prop:procedure
(struct-field-index proc)
#:transparent
#:methods gen:custom-write
[(define (write-proc x port mode)
(display (string-append "#<cmd:" (stringify x) ">") port))])
(define (shell name)
(define (cmd-proxy . args)
(define cmd
(string-join (map stringify (cons name args))
" "))
(system cmd))
cmd-proxy)
(define-syntax shell-curry
(syntax-rules ()
((_ . id)
(cmd 'id (shell 'id)))))
Save this as shell.rkt and make this runner.rkt in the same directory:
#lang s-exp "shell.rkt"
(define test (list /bin/ls /usr/bin/file))
(second test) ; ==> #<cmd:/usr/bin/file>
(first test) ; ==> #<cmd:/bin/ls>
((second test) (first test))
; ==> t (prints that /bin/ls is an executable on my system)
Now from here to make it a #lang myshell or something like that is pretty easy.

SBCL forward declaration: possible?

I'm writing some code in SBCL, and the ordering of my functions keeps causing warnings of the following type to appear when I load files into the REPL:
;caught STYLE-WARNING:
undefined function: FOO
Where FOO is the symbol for the function. This is purely due to how they are ordered in my file, as the function FOO is defined, just not before the part of the code that throws that warning.
Now, in Clojure, which is the Lisp I'm familiar with, I have the declare form, which lets me make forward declarations to avoid this kind of issue. Is there something similar for SBCL/Common Lisp in general?
We can use the '(declaim (ftype ...))' for that:
(declaim (ftype (function (integer list) t) ith))
(defun foo (xs)
(ith 0 xs))
(defun ith (n xs)
(nth n xs))
Both the function 'foo' and 'ith' works fine and there is not any style warning about that.
http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/d_ftype.htm
Here's what I found in the manual, section 4.1.1:
CL-USER> (defun foo (x) (bar x))
; in: DEFUN FOO
; (BAR X)
;
; caught STYLE-WARNING:
; undefined function: BAR
;
; compilation unit finished
; Undefined function:
; BAR
; caught 1 STYLE-WARNING condition
FOO
CL-USER> (declaim (sb-ext:muffle-conditions style-warning))
; No value
CL-USER> (defun baz (y) (quux y))
BAZ
So you can at least silence the style warnings.
I also thought about how SBCL is handling the evaluation step in the REPL: it compiles the code. So I restarted the inferior lisp process and ran "compile region" on the following two lines:
(defun foo (x) (bar x))
(defun bar (y) (baz y))
and SBCL only complained about baz, but not about bar. Are you giving single functions to SBCL or larger chunks?

Still about quote in Lisp

I am a novice in Lisp, learning slowly at spare time... Months ago, I was puzzled by the error report from a Lisp REPL that the following expression does not work:
((if (> 2 1) + -) 1 2)
By looking around then I knew that Lisp is not Scheme...in Lisp, I need to do either:
(funcall (if (> 2 1) '+ '-) 2 1), or
(funcall (if (> 2 1) #'+ #'-) 2 1)
I also took a glimpse of introductary material about lisp-1 and lisp-2, although I was not able to absort the whole stuff there...in any case, I knew that quote prevents evaluation, as an exception to the evaluation rule.
Recently I am reading something about reduce...and then as an exercise, I wanted to write my own version of reduce. Although I managed to get it work (at least it seems working), I realized that I still cannot exactly explain why, in the body of defun, that some places funcall is needed, and at some places not.
The following is myreduce in elisp:
(defun myreduce (fn v lst)
(cond ((null lst) v)
((atom lst) (funcall fn v lst))
(t (funcall fn (car lst) (myreduce fn v (cdr lst))))))
(myreduce '+ 0 '(1 2 3 4))
My questions are about the 3rd and 4th lines:
The 3rd line: why I need funcall? why not just (fn v lst)? My "argument" is that in (fn v lst), fn is the first element in the list, so lisp may be able to use this position information to treat it as a function...but it's not. So certainly I missed something here.
The 4th line in the recursive call of myreduce: what kind of fn be passed to the recursive call to myreduce? '+ or +, or something else?
I guess there should be something very fundamental I am not aware of...I wanted to know, when I call myreduce as shown in the 6th/last line, what is exactly happening afterwards (at least on how the '+ is passed around), and is there a way to trace that in any REPL environment?
Thanks a lot,
/bruin
Common Lisp is a LISP-2 and has two namespaces. One for functions and one for variables. Arguments are bound in the variable namespace so fn does not exist in the function namespace.
(fn arg) ; call what fn is in the function namespace
(funcall fn ...) ; call a function referenced as a variable
'+ is a symbol and funcall and apply will look it up in the global function namespace when it sees it's a symbol instead of a function object. #'+ is an abbreviation for (function +) which resolves the function from the local function namespace. With lots of calls #'+ is faster than '+ since '+ needs a lookup. Both symbol and a function can be passed as fn to myreduce and whatever was passed is the same that gets passed in line 4.
(myreduce '+ 0 '(1 2 3 4)) ; here funcall might lookup what '+ is every time (CLISP does it while SBLC caches it)
(myreduce #'+ 0 '(1 2 3 4)); here funcall will be given a function object looked up in the first call in all consecutive calls
Now if you pass '+ it will be evaluated to + and bound to fn.
In myreduce we pass fn in the recursion and it will be evaluated to + too.
For #'+ it evaluates to the function and bound to fn.
In myreduce we pass fn in the recursion and it will be evaluated to the function object fn was bound to in the variable namespace.
Common Lisp has construct to add to the function namespace. Eg.
(flet ((double (x) (+ x x))) ; make double in the function namespace
(double 10)) ; ==> 20
But you could have written it and used it on the variable namespace:
(let ((double #'(lambda (x) (+ x x)))) ; make double in the variable namespace
(funcall double 10))
Common Lisp has two (actually more than two) namespaces: one for variables and one for functions. This means that one name can mean different things depending on the context: it can be a variable and it can be a function name.
(let ((foo 42)) ; a variable FOO
(flet ((foo (n) (+ n 107))) ; a function FOO
(foo foo))) ; calling function FOO with the value of the variable FOO
Some examples how variables are defined:
(defun foo (n) ...) ; n is a variable
(let ((n 3)) ...) ; n is a variable
(defparameter *n* 41) ; *n* is a variable
So whenever a variable is defined and used, the name is in the variable namespace.
Functions are defined:
(defun foo (n) ...) ; FOO is a function
(flet ((foo (n) ...)) ...) ; FOO is a function
So whenever a function is defined and used, the name is in the function namespace.
Since the function itself is an object, you can have function being a variable value. If you want to call such a value, then you need to use FUNCALL or APPLY.
(let ((plus (function plus)))
(funcall plus 10 11))
Now why are things like they are? ;-)
two namespaces allow us to use names as variables which are already functions.
Example: in a Lisp-1 I can't write:
(defun list-me (list) (list list))
In Common Lisp there is no conflict for above code.
a separate function namespace makes compiled code a bit simpler:
In a call (foo 42) the name FOO can only be undefined or it is a function. Another alternative does not exist. So at runtime we never have to check the function value of FOO for actually being a function object. If FOO has a function value, then it must be a function object. The reason for that: it is not possible in Common Lisp to define a function with something other than a function.
In Scheme you can write:
(let ((list 42))
(list 1 2 3 list))
Above needs to be checked at some point and will result in an error, since LIST is 42, which is not a function.
In Common Lisp above code defines only a variable LIST, but the function LIST is still available.

Can I make a clojure macro that will allow me to get a list of all functions created by the macro?

I would like to have a macro which I'll call def-foo. Def-foo will create a function, and then will add this function to a set.
So I could call
(def-foo bar ...)
(def-foo baz ...)
And then there would be some set, e.g. all-foos, which I could call:
all-foos
=> #{bar, baz}
Essentially, I'm just trying to avoid repeating myself. I could of course define the functions in the normal way, (defn bar ...) and then write the set manually.
A better alternative, and simpler than the macro idea, would be to do:
(def foos #{(defn bar ...) (defn baz ...)} )
But I'm still curious as to whether there is a good way for the macro idea to work.
Do you want to end up with a set that has the names of functions in it (i.e. a set of Symbols), or a set containing vars (which resolve to functions)? If you want the former, you can add the symbols to an atom in the macro at compile-time, like Greg Harman's version.
If you want the latter, your macro must expand to code that does the atom-swapping after the function is defined. Remember that macros run at compile-time and the macro-expanded result runs at run-time; the function itself is not available until run-time.
(def all-foos (atom #{}))
(defmacro def-foo [x]
`(let [var# (defn ~x [] (println "I am" '~x))]
(swap! all-foos conj var#)))
If you want to be able to call the functions in this set, for example, you need to use the latter version.
user> (def-foo foo)
#{#'user/foo}
user> (def-foo bar)
#{#'user/foo #'user/bar}
user> ((first #all-foos))
I am foo
nil
Have the macro add the name of the new function to your set before creating the function, like so:
(def *foos* (atom (hash-set)))
(defmacro def-foo [name]
(swap! *foos* conj name)
`(defn ~name
[]
(println "This is a foo!")))
Result:
user=> (def-foo bar)
#'user/bar
user=> (def-foo baz)
#'user/baz
user=> (bar)
This is a foo!
nil
user=> (baz)
This is a foo!
nil
user=> *foos*
#<Atom#186b11c: #{baz bar}>

returning a lambda function in clisp, then evaluating it

Suppose I have this wonderful function foo
[92]> (defun foo () (lambda() 42))
FOO
[93]> (foo)
#<FUNCTION :LAMBDA NIL 42>
[94]>
Now, suppose I want to actually use foo and return 42.
How do I do that? I've been scrounging around google and I can't seem to come up with the correct syntax.
You want the FUNCALL function:
* (defun foo () (lambda () 42))
FOO
* (funcall (foo))
42
The relevant terms here are "Lisp-1" and "Lisp-2".
Your attempt at calling would work in a Lisp-1 like e.g. Scheme or Clojure.
Common Lisp is a Lisp-2 however which roughly means that variable names and function names are separate.
So, in order to call the function bound to a variable you either need to use the special forms funcall or apply as others have pointed out or set the function value of the symbol foo rather than the variable value.
The former basically takes the variable value of the symbol, assumes/checks that value is a function and then calls the function (with whatever arguments you passed to funcall/apply.
You don't really want to do the latter as that is quite silly in all but very specialised cases, but for completness sake this is roughly how you'd do it:
CL-USER> (setf (symbol-function 'foo) (lambda () 42))
#<FUNCTION (LAMBDA ()) {C43DCFD}>
CL-USER> (foo)
42
You should also want to look into the labels and flet special forms (which are commonly used) - there you actually do use the latter methods (these forms create a temporary function binding for symbols).
So your problem would there look like this:
(flet ((foo ()
42))
(foo))
i.e. here you temporarily bind the function value of the symbol foo to the function returning 42. Within that temporary context you can then call (foo) like regular global functions.
Your function foo returns a function. Use the funcall function to apply a function to arguments, even if the argument set is empty.
Here you can see that foo returns a value of type function:
CL-USER> (let ((f (foo)))
(type-of f))
FUNCTION
CL-USER> (let ((f (foo)))
(funcall f))
42
CL-USER> (type-of (foo))
FUNCTION
CL-USER> (funcall (foo))
42
Another option besides FUNCALL is APPLY:
(apply (foo) nil)
FUNCALL is the idiomatic way here, but you'll need APPLY when you have a list of parameters.