Curly

Common Lisp reader macros for easy function currying and composition.

1 Description

Curly is set of two reader macros for easy function currying and composition. It was inspired by Arc's syntax for currying, using square brackets. Curly creates anonymous functions (lambdas) with literal function composition instead of trying smarter approach (like using (REDUCE #'FUNCALL ...)) so that the compiler is able to do more optimizations.

ASDF system definition is included in curly.asd file.

Latest stable version of Curly can be obtained as a .tar.gz archive at http://www.pasternacki.net/files/curly.tar.gz; current development version (recommended) is available as Darcs repository at http://www.pasternacki.net/repos/curly: 

darcs get http://www.pasternacki.net/repos/curly

1.1 Square bracket macro

Square bracket macro does simple currying: 

CURLY> '[foo]
(LAMBDA (#:G2705) (FOO #:G2705))
CURLY> '[foo bar]
(LAMBDA (#:G2706) (FOO BAR #:G2706))
CURLY> '[foo bar baz]
(LAMBDA (#:G2707) (FOO BAR BAZ #:G2707))

By using symbol configured by CURLY:*BLANK-ARGUMENT* user can put anonymous function's parameter in desired place, not necessarily at end of argument list. By default, blank argument is a single star, but it can be set e.g. to underscore to better match Arc: 

CURLY> '[foo bar * baz]
(LAMBDA (#:G2709) (FOO BAR #:G2709 BAZ))
CURLY> '[foo * bar baz]
(LAMBDA (#:G2710) (FOO #:G2710 BAR BAZ))

Curly interpretes blank argument only in argument position; blank argument in functional position is left untouched: 

CURLY> '[* foo bar baz]
(LAMBDA (#:G2711) (* FOO BAR BAZ #:G2711))
CURLY> '[* foo * baz]
(LAMBDA (#:G2712) (* FOO #:G2712 BAZ))

1.2 Curly bracket macro

Curly bracket does function composition, which may be coupled with currying. Let's start from simple composition: 

CURLY> '{foo bar}
(LAMBDA (#:G2714) (FOO (BAR #:G2714)))
CURLY> '{foo bar baz}
(LAMBDA (#:G2715) (FOO (BAR (BAZ #:G2715))))
CURLY> '{foo bar baz quux}
(LAMBDA (#:G2716) (FOO (BAR (BAZ (QUUX #:G2716)))))

And so on, and so on. When instead of a function name there is a list within the braces, this means currying: 

CURLY> '{foo (bar 23) baz quux}
(LAMBDA (#:G2721) (FOO (BAR 23 (BAZ (QUUX #:G2721)))))
CURLY> '{foo (bar 16) (baz 23 42) quux}
(LAMBDA (#:G2723) (FOO (BAR 16 (BAZ 23 42 (QUUX #:G2723)))))

Of course, when currying within braces, blank argument can be used as well: 

CURLY> '{foo (bar 16) (baz 23 * 42) quux}
(LAMBDA (#:G2724) (FOO (BAR 16 (BAZ 23 (QUUX #:G2724) 42))))
CURLY> '{foo (bar 16) (baz * 23 42) quux}
(LAMBDA (#:G2725) (FOO (BAR 16 (BAZ (QUUX #:G2725) 23 42)))

2 Reference

All Curly functions, macros and variables are exported from package CURLY.

2.1 *BLANK-ARGUMENT*

Variable: specifies symbol that is used to indicate blank argument for currying. Default value is '*.

2.2 CURLY-READER stream character

Function: reader macro function for curly braces (composition).

2.3 SQUARE-READER stream character

Function: reader macro function for square braces (currying).

2.4 MAKE-CURLY-READTABLE &optional (original-readtable *readtable*)

Function: returns modified copy of ORIGINAL-READTABLE that has Curly reader macros turned on.

2.5 ENABLE-CURLY-SYNTAX

Macro: enable curly syntax for current file.

2.6 DISABLE-CURLY-SYNTAX

Macro: disable curly syntax for current file.

Warning: Calling DISABLE-CURLY-SYNTAX when curly syntax is not enabled can give funny results. Also, reading multiple files using ENABLE-CURLY-SYNTAX and DISABLE-CURLY-SYNTAX in different threads can invoke a disaster. ENABLE-CURLY-SYNTAX itself is safe.

3 Testing

Unit tests are included in tests.lisp file. To run test, you need FiveAM testing framework along with required Arnesi library from http://common-lisp.net/project/bese/.

To run the tests, simply load curly with ASDF, and then type into REPL: 

 (asdf:operate 'asdf:test-op :curly)