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digitalmars.D - Abstract syntax tree manipulation

reply "Suminda Dharmasena" <sirinath1978m gmail.com> writes:
Hi,

Since macro is reserved perhaps D can introduce AST manipulating 
macros.

Suminda
Apr 21 2013
next sibling parent reply Jacob Carlborg <doob me.com> writes:
On 2013-04-21 09:57, Suminda Dharmasena wrote:

 Hi,

 Since macro is reserved perhaps D can introduce AST manipulating macros.

 Suminda


The original idea with the "macro" keyword was to introduce AST macros. 
Although nothing has happened yet. People have been talking about it 
from time to time but no one has had a real proposal.

I've got this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18386187/ast_macros.html

But I haven't turned it into a DIP (D Improvement Proposal) yet.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg
Apr 21 2013
next sibling parent reply "Tofu Ninja" <emmons0 purdue.edu> writes:
On Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 10:13:43 UTC, Jacob Carlborg wrote:

 On 2013-04-21 09:57, Suminda Dharmasena wrote:

 Hi,

 Since macro is reserved perhaps D can introduce AST 
 manipulating macros.

 Suminda


 The original idea with the "macro" keyword was to introduce AST 
 macros. Although nothing has happened yet. People have been 
 talking about it from time to time but no one has had a real 
 proposal.

 I've got this: 
 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18386187/ast_macros.html

 But I haven't turned it into a DIP (D Improvement Proposal) yet.


This is amazing, its not 100% perfect but it hits all the main 
things I want out of a macro system. How long ago did you come up 
with this?
Jan 24 2014
parent reply Jacob Carlborg <doob me.com> writes:
On 2014-01-24 11:20, Tofu Ninja wrote:


 This is amazing, its not 100% perfect but it hits all the main things I
 want out of a macro system. How long ago did you come up with this?


I don't know. Dropbox says the file was created 2013 in February. I've 
created a DIP out of this:

http://wiki.dlang.org/DIP50

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg
Jan 24 2014
parent reply "MrSmith" <mrsmith33 yandex.ru> writes:
On Friday, 24 January 2014 at 13:22:53 UTC, Jacob Carlborg wrote:

 On 2014-01-24 11:20, Tofu Ninja wrote:


 This is amazing, its not 100% perfect but it hits all the main 
 things I
 want out of a macro system. How long ago did you come up with 
 this?


 I don't know. Dropbox says the file was created 2013 in 
 February. I've created a DIP out of this:

 http://wiki.dlang.org/DIP50


Is this avaliable as some sort of preprocessor?
Looks really amazing!
Jan 25 2014
next sibling parent Jacob Carlborg <doob me.com> writes:
On 2014-01-25 13:15, MrSmith wrote:


 Is this avaliable as some sort of preprocessor?
 Looks really amazing!


No, unfortunately it's not available in any form.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg
Jan 25 2014
prev sibling parent "Suminda Dharmasena" <sirinath1978m gmail.com> writes:
Any progress on Macros?
Jun 16 2014
prev sibling next sibling parent "Tofu Ninja" <emmons0 purdue.edu> writes:
On Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 10:13:43 UTC, Jacob Carlborg wrote:

 On 2013-04-21 09:57, Suminda Dharmasena wrote:

 Hi,

 Since macro is reserved perhaps D can introduce AST 
 manipulating macros.

 Suminda


 The original idea with the "macro" keyword was to introduce AST 
 macros. Although nothing has happened yet. People have been 
 talking about it from time to time but no one has had a real 
 proposal.

 I've got this: 
 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18386187/ast_macros.html

 But I haven't turned it into a DIP (D Improvement Proposal) yet.


My favorite part was the statement macros and the attribute 
macros. I want this so much.
Jan 24 2014
prev sibling parent "Elie Morisse" <syniurge gmail.com> writes:
On Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 10:13:43 UTC, Jacob Carlborg wrote:

 On 2013-04-21 09:57, Suminda Dharmasena wrote:

 Hi,

 Since macro is reserved perhaps D can introduce AST 
 manipulating macros.

 Suminda


 The original idea with the "macro" keyword was to introduce AST 
 macros. Although nothing has happened yet. People have been 
 talking about it from time to time but no one has had a real 
 proposal.

 I've got this: 
 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18386187/ast_macros.html

 But I haven't turned it into a DIP (D Improvement Proposal) yet.


This would be a perfect and much classier replacement for mixins 
in most situations.
Jan 26 2014
prev sibling parent reply "Belzurix" <8412n4.250m8012 gmail.com> writes:
On Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 07:57:51 UTC, Suminda Dharmasena 
wrote:

 Hi,

 Since macro is reserved perhaps D can introduce AST 
 manipulating macros.

 Suminda


Hi!

As far as I can remember, macros have been deferred to D3 because 
it has mixins and templates, so one can easily manipulate code in 
D. However, it's been long time since there was serious 
discussion about the implementation details. I'm happy to see 
that the topic emerged again just before DConf - maybe the 
discussion will continue there.
Several non-lispy languages introduced macros long ago so the 
developers may learn from others mistakes and they will avoid the 
pitfalls. These languages include Groovy,
Scala, Nimrod and Rust.

The Rust implementation is much like text substituation when 
used, so one can easily learn it in an hour. Its syntax is a 
little distinct from the base language, and there has been a 
problem with lexing it according to a past issue: 
https://github.com/mozilla/rust/issues/2755
It's still unfinished, there are some limitations. ( although 
it's been always hard to debug them ) Have a look at: 
http://static.rust-lang.org/doc/0.6/tutorial-macros.html
and also see the language manual ( at http://rust-lang.org )

Beyond AST macros, Nimrod ( http://nimrod-code.org ) has text 
substituation mechanisms called templates - much like C macros or 
templates in C++ and D. It also has term rewriting macros. In my 
opinion, Nimrod is a language where a lot of features can produce 
dirty code ( although some of them are very well done and they 
are extremely powerful tools ), and it's the developer's choice 
to use the features for the right purposes ( especially true with 
term rewriting ).
So obfuscation is just as easy in that language as in C++ or 
Perls before version 6 despite the fact that its sysntax is 
derived from Python.

I can't say much about Scala and Groovy, but their syntax for 
defining macros doesn't use as cryptic symbols as Nimrod. For 
example I couldn't find out for first time what is nnk the nnk 
prefix in the nnkInfix symbol.

Zsombor
Apr 21 2013
next sibling parent Jacob Carlborg <doob me.com> writes:
On 2013-04-21 12:36, Belzurix wrote:


 Hi!

 As far as I can remember, macros have been deferred to D3 because it has
 mixins and templates, so one can easily manipulate code in D. However,
 it's been long time since there was serious discussion about the
 implementation details. I'm happy to see that the topic emerged again
 just before DConf - maybe the discussion will continue there.
 Several non-lispy languages introduced macros long ago so the developers
 may learn from others mistakes and they will avoid the pitfalls. These
 languages include Groovy,
 Scala, Nimrod and Rust.


There's also Nemerle which lets you create new syntax for your AST macros.

http://nemerle.org/wiki/index.php?title=Macros

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg
Apr 21 2013
prev sibling parent reply "Araq" <rumpf_a web.de> writes:
 Beyond AST macros, Nimrod ( http://nimrod-code.org ) has text 
 substituation mechanisms called templates - much like C macros 
 or templates in C++ and D. It also has term rewriting macros.


Nimrod's templates do operate on the AST too, they don't perform 
text substitution.


 In my opinion, Nimrod is a language where a lot of features can 
 produce dirty code ( although some of them are very well done 
 and they are extremely powerful tools ), and it's the 
 developer's choice to use the features for the right purposes ( 
 especially true with term rewriting ).


Term rewriting macros can be turned off on both local and global 
levels to ensure they don't affect semantics. You can also 
exclude a TR macro symbol explicitly in an "import" statement 
(import module except broken_tr_macro)  should the transformation 
turn out to be buggy.


 So obfuscation is just as easy in that language as in C++ or 
 Perls before version 6 despite the fact that its sysntax is 
 derived from Python.


The idea that a statically typed language with checked exceptions 
and an effect system (both features which didn't make it into 
0.9.0 though) is somehow less maintainable than Python with its 
dynamism everywhere is absurd.


 I can't say much about Scala and Groovy, but their syntax for 
 defining macros doesn't use as cryptic symbols as Nimrod. For 
 example I couldn't find out for first time what is nnk the nnk 
 prefix in the nnkInfix symbol.


Admittedly the macros API has been rushed out and the nnk 
prefixes are ugly. However there are addons that improve on the 
API. The core API will be improved too but it needs some 
transition path as unfortunately quite some code now depends on 
it. ;-)
Apr 22 2013
parent "Suminda Dharmasena" <sirinath1978m gmail.com> writes:
Also Redex Racket / Racket can give some inspiration.

Also perhaps Nimrod can get a D back end?
Jan 23 2014