Creating a record with macro - macros

I have a record (defrecord Rec [id])
I work with it like
(def my ( Rec. 2 ))
(println (:id my))
Now I want to replace record def with macro. So that I could write just
(r 2)
(println (:id my))
I wrote macro
(defmacro r [id]
(list 'def 'my (symbol "(") 'Rec. id (symbol ")")))
I checked it with macroexpand
(macroexpand-1 '(r 2)) => (def my ( Rec. 2 ))
But I get RuntimeException: Too many arguments to def on (r 2).

Creating a symbol out of a left paren is not the same as eval-ing text with a left paren. No special significance is attached to the former; the latter causes the reader to produce a nested list which is then evaluated.
In other words, Clojure evaluates data structures, not text (or a list of symbols). When you type something in the REPL, that text is read into a data structure, then the data structure is evaluated.
For this to work correctly, the macro needs to produce a nested list itself:
(defmacro r [id]
(list 'def 'my (list 'Rec. id)))
Or better yet, use the syntax quote operator:
(defmacro r [id]
`(def my (Rec. ~id)))
For illustrative purposes, you can see what happens when Clojure code is read as text:
(read-string "(def my (Rec. 2))")
=> (def my (Rec. 2))
(map type (read-string "(def my (Rec. 2))"))
=> (clojure.lang.Symbol clojure.lang.Symbol clojure.lang.PersistentList)

Related

What is the use of `,` and `,#` in Racket?

I'm new to Racket and I was hoping to get more insights in the these two operators: , & ,#.
There's very little documentation of these new operators, however, to my understanding the former (,) unquotes everything if its is followed by a list. And the latter (,#) splices the values.
For example if the following is typed in the Dr. Racket interpreter:
(define scores '(1 3 2))
(define pets '(dog cat))
and then the following query is made:
`(,scores ,#pets)
this would yield : '((1 3 2) dog cat)
It would be appreciated if I could get more details, definitions and more examples about these operators.
Thanks in advance.
A single quote followed by the written representation of a value
will produce that value:
Example:
'(1 x "foo")
will produce a value that prints as (1 x "foo").
Suppose now that I don't want a literal symbol x in the list.
I have a variable x in my program, and I want to insert
the value to which x is bound.
To mark that I want the value of x rather than the symbol x,
I insert a comma before x:
'(1 ,x "foo")
It won't work as-is though - I now get a value that has a literal comma as well as a symbol x. The problem is that quote does not know about the comma convention.
Backtick or backquote knows about the comma-convention, so that will give the correct result:
> `(1 ,x "foo")
(1 3 "foo") ; if the value of x is 3
Now let's say x is the list (a b).
> `(1 ,x "foo")
(1 (a b) "foo") ; if the value of x is (a b)
This looks as expected. But what if I wanted (1 a b "foo")
as the result? We need a way so show "insert the elements of a list".
That's where ,# comes into the picture.
> `(1 ,#x "foo")
(1 a b "foo") ; if the value of x is (a b)
They are "reader abbreviations" or "reader macros". They are introduced in the section of the Racket guide on quasiquotation. To summarize:
`e reads as (quasiquote e)
,e reads as (unquote e)
,#e reads as (unquote-splicing e)
Because Racket's printer uses the same abbreviations by default, it can be confusing to test this yourself. Here are a few examples that should help:
> (equal? (list 'unquote 'abc) (read (open-input-string ",abc")))
#t
> (writeln (read (open-input-string ",abc")))
(unquote abc)
A more exhaustive description of the Racket reader is in the section on The Reader in the Racket Reference. A list of reader abbreviations is in the Reading Quotes subsection.

Clojure macro inside another macro: how to generate string from symbol

Probably the title is not 100% correct, but let me show you the issue:
(defmacro nvp!
[n width height]
`(q/defsketch (symbol (str (name '~n) "-viewport" ))
:title (name '~n))
In short: there's a macro called defsketch (it's part of the lib quil, but that does not matter). It's signature is basically defsketch [applet-name & options], and it creates something and binds it to a var called applet-name. For some reason, I want to wrap this into another macro that -- among other things -- takes an applet-name parameter, extends that name into applet-name-viewport and passes that to defsketch. I, however, am unable to figure out how to do that correctly (using macroexpand on the code above ((pprint (macroexpand(nvp test-name 500 500))), I get
(def(clojure.core/symbol (clojure.core/str (clojure.core/name 'my-namespace.core/test-name) "-viewport"))
(quil.applet/applet
:title (clojure.core/name 'my-namespace.core/test-name)))
(clojure.core/symbol (clojure.core/str (clojure.core/name 'my-namespace.core/test-name) "-viewport") -- this part looks good, but it should be evaluated somehow before passing it to the inner macro...
You need to unquote the form that generates the new symbol instead of the original symbol itself.
Here is a small example of how to accomplish this using a defn like macro for the inner macro:
(defmacro mydefn
[name & body]
`(defn ~name ~#body))
(defmacro defnview
[n & body]
`(mydefn ~(symbol (str (name n) "-viewport")) ~#body))
;; OR
(defmacro defnview
[n & body]
(let [n (symbol (str (name n) "-viewport"))]
`(mydefn ~n ~#body)))
Example:
(defnview foo [a] a)
;; => #'user/foo-viewport
(foo-viewport 1)
;; => 1
(macroexpand '(defnview foo [a] a))
;; => (def foo-viewport (clojure.core/fn ([a] a)))

in clojure language what <'a> really is

actually i am trying to perfectly understand clojure and particularly symbols
(def a 1)
(type a)
;;=>java.lang.Long
(type 'a)
;;=>clojure.lang.Symbol
I know that type is a function so its arguments get evaluated first so i perfectly understand why the code above work this way .In the flowing code i decided to delay the evaluation using macro
(defmacro m-type [x] (type x))
(m-type a)
;;==>clojure.lang.Symbol
and i am fine with that but what i fail to uderstand is this:
(m-type 'a)
;;=>clojure.lang.Cons
why the type of 'a is a cons
the character ' is interpreted by the clojure reader as a reader-macro which expands to a list containing the symbol quote followed by whatever follows the ', so in your call to (m-type 'a) the 'a is expanding to:
user> (macroexpand-1 ''a)
(quote a)
then calling type on the list (quote a) which is a Cons.
This may be a bit more clear if we make the m-type macro print the arguments as it sees them while it is evaluating:
user> (defmacro m-type [x] (println "x is " x) (type x))
#'user/m-type
user> (m-type 'a)
x is (quote a)
clojure.lang.Cons

Nested macros in Racket

I want to be able to write a nested expression like this:
(AND/OR expr1 op1 expr2 AND/OR expr3 op2 expr4 and so on)
Where AND/OR is essentially AND or OR. But I want to be able to write an infinite amount of them. I'm using the define-syntax to try to make this happen but I'm not sure how to accept infinite amounts of nested expressions.
Don't mind the expr's and op's in my example, that part I can handle myself. I only want to know how to accept infinite nesting.
Example:
(SELECT somecolumns
FROM sometable
WHERE something
AND/OR something
AND/OR (something AND/OR something)
AND/OR ...)
As Asumu says, in general it's simpler to deal with s-expressions, at least in order to ensure correct operator priority, but for some simple cases pattern matching of syntax-rules (and syntax-parse and co) makes this easy, using rest arguments and recursive matching:
#lang racket
(define-syntax parse-args
(syntax-rules (AND) ; treat AND as a literal
[(_)
; no more argument, return value:
'()]
[(_ (arg1 AND in-rst ...))
; Composed argument found, call parse-args recursively:
(parse-args arg1 AND in-rst ...)]
[(_ arg1 AND rst ...)
; AND operator found, parse left side and rest
(list 'and
; parse the argument (may be composed or not):
(parse-args arg1)
; then parse the rest of the arguments:
(parse-args rst ...))]
[(_ arg)
; in case the argument is not composed or does not contain AND, don't parse it
arg]))
;; TESTS:
(parse-args 'a AND ('b AND 'bb) AND 'c AND 'f)
; -> '(and a (and (and b bb) (and c f)))
(parse-args 'a AND ('b AND 'bb))
; -> '(and a (and b bb))
However, note that the above code can become impractical when adding other operators.
Edit:
Together with the select macro:
(define-syntax SELECT
(syntax-rules (FROM WHERE)
[(_ select FROM from WHERE where ...)
(list 'Select select 'From from 'Where (parse-args where ...))]))
; TEST:
(SELECT 'somecolumns
FROM 'sometable
WHERE 'something1
AND 'something2
AND ('something3 AND 'something4)
AND 'blop)
; ->
#;'(Select
somecolumns
From
sometable
Where
(and something1
(and something2
(and (and something3 something4) blop))))
Again, pattern-matching allows for cutting the list at the right point to get the rest arguments

Clojure macro to process multiple function metadata

In Clojure, how do I make a library macro which processes supplied functions metadata and return some result? Amount of functions is unlimited and they should be passed without being boxed into a sequence ((my-macro fn1 fn2) instead of (my-macro [fn1 fn2]))
Say, we expect function vars having :foo keys in meta and the macro concatenates their values. The following snippet should work in REPL (considering my-macro is in the namespace):
user=> (defn my-func-1 {:foo "bar"} [])
(defn my-func-1 {:foo "bar"} [])
#'user/my-func-1
user=> (defn my-func-2 {:foo "baz"} [])
(defn my-func-2 {:foo "baz"} [])
#'user/my-func-2
user=> (my-macro my-func-1 my-func2)
(my-macro my-func-1 my-func2)
"barbaz"
I tried several approaches but was only able to process single function so far.
Thanks!
Try this:
(defmacro my-macro [& fns]
`(clojure.string/join (list ~#(map (fn [x] `(:foo (meta (var ~x)))) fns))))
(defn ^{:foo "bar"} my-func-1 [])
(defn ^{:foo "baz"} my-func-2 [])
(my-macro my-func-1 my-func-2) ;; => "barbaz"
How it Works
If you expand the macro you can start to see the parts in play.
(macroexpand '(my-macro my-func-1 my-func-2))
(clojure.string/join
(clojure.core/list (:foo (clojure.core/meta (var my-func-1)))
(:foo (clojure.core/meta (var my-func-2)))))
(var my-func-1)
Function metadata is stored on the var, so using (meta my-func-1) is not sufficient. But, var is a special form and does not compose like a normal function.
(fn [x] `(:foo (meta (var ~x))))
This anonymous function exists inside an escaped form, so it is processed inside the macro to produce the output forms. Internally it will create a the (:foo (meta (var my-func-1))) form by first backtick escaping the outer form to declare it a literal, and not evaluated, list and then unescaping the x var with a tilde to output the value instead of the symbol.
`(clojure.string/join (list ~#(map (fn [x] `(:foo (meta (var ~x))))
fns)))
This entire form is backtick escaped, so it will be returned literally. But, I still need to evaluate the map function generating the (:foo (meta (var my-func-1))) form. In this case I have unescaped, and spliced (#) the result of, the map form directly. This first evaluates the map function and returns a list of generated forms, and then takes the contents of that list and splices it into the parent list.
(defmacro test1 [x] `(~x))
(defmacro test2 [x] `(~#x))
(macroexpand '(test1 (1 2 3))) ;; => ((1 2 3))
(macroexpand '(test2 (1 2 3))) ;; => (1 2 3)
You could also split out the map function in a let statement before hand for slightly more readability.
(defmacro my-macro [& fns]
(let [metacalls (map (fn [x] `(:foo (meta (var ~x)))) fns)]
`(clojure.string/join (list ~#metacalls))))