119 lines
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4.9 KiB
Markdown
119 lines
No EOL
4.9 KiB
Markdown
# goof-loop - a scheme looping facility
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WARNING: CURRENTLY PRE-ALPHA. The examples in this document are not consistent with the current direction I am pushing this (even though they _should_ work).
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goof-loops aims to be an amalgamation of the racket for loops and Alex Shinn's (chibi-loop). We are many that found racket's for loops a breeze of fresh air, but in the end their most general forms (for/fold and for/foldr) are kinda odd to work with. If you choose not to use those general for loops, you cannot express arbitrary transformations, like say a fibonacci sequence, since for clauses cannot reference eachother. goof-loop tries to fix this:
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```
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(loop ((a (in 0 b))
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(b (in 1 (+ a b)))
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(count (up-from 0 (to 1000)))
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(acc (listing b)))
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=> acc
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(display b) (newline))
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```
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The above example will display and accumulate the 1000 first fibonacci numbers. Doing the same thing in racket requires you to manually handle all the state in fold-variables using for/fold. It is a simple example, but proves the usefulness of goof-loop.
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Compared to foof-loop, some things are added. Apart from minor syntactic changes, subloops are supported. The best way is to show:
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```
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(define lst '((1 2) dud (3 4) (5 6)))
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(loop ((a (in-list lst))
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:when (pair? a)
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(b (in-list a))
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(acc (summing b)))
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=> acc)
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```
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This will sum all the sublists of lst and produce the result 21. Any :when, :unless, :break, or :subloop clause will break out a subloop if any subsequent for clauses are found.
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Accumulators can be in any of the loop's stages:
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```
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(loop ((a (in-list '(1 2 3)))
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(aa (summing a))
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:subloop
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(b (up-from a (to (+ a 2))))
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(ab (listing b)))
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=> (values aa ab))
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;; => (values 6 (1 2 2 3 3 4))
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```
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## Differences from foof-loop
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### syntactical
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all keywords are prepended with a : to distinguish them from regular variables. for -> :for
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while and until are removed in favour of :break.
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:when and :unless are added to better control when the loop body is executed (and accumulators accumulated)
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with-clauses are removed in favour of (:for var (in init [step [stop]]))
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accumulators are no longer for-clauses, but should be prepended with :acc.
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### Regressions compared to foof-loop
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only :acc clauses are visible in the final-expression. This is due to for-clauses not being promoted through to outer loops (since they should not keep their state).
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:for clauses cannot finalize, due to the above thing. The reason for distinguishing between :for and :acc is to be able to promote accumulators outwards and finalizers inwards. This is not implemented yet, however.
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Due to clause reordering, positional updates are not supported. If you want to update your loop vars, do so using named update (see below).
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### changes
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(with var [init [step [guard]]]) => (:for var (in init [step [stop-expr]])). guard was a procedure, but now it is an expression.
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(with var 10 (- var 1) negative?) => (:for var (in 10 (- var 10) (negative? var)))
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### similarities
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You can of course still have a larger control of your loops:
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```
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(loop loopy-loop ((a (up-from 1 (to 11))))
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=> '()
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(if (odd? a)
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(cons (* a (- a)) (loopy-loop))
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(cons (* a a) (loopy-loop))))
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;; => (-1 4 -9 16 -25 36 -49 64 -81 100)
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```
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Named updates also work.
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```
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;; Shamelessly stolen from Taylor Campbell's foof-loop documentation
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(define (partition list predicate)
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(loop continue ((element (in-list list))
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(satisfied (folding '()))
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(unsatisfied (folding '())))
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=> (values (reverse satisfied)
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(reverse unsatisfied))
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(if (predicate element)
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(continue (=> satisfied (cons element satisfied)))
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(continue (=> unsatisfied (cons element unsatisfied))))))
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(partition '(1 2 3 4 5) odd?)
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;; => (values (1 3 5) (2 4))
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```
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## Todo
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Should we add finalizers for :for-clauses? I can't see the need outside of a potential (in-file ...), which can't be properly supported anyway since I won't do any dynamic-wind stuff.
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Is (:for var (in init step stop)) and (:acc var (in init update)) good syntax? the :with clause of foof-loop is nice, but what should it be called for accumulators? Should we go back to calling both :acc and :for just ":for" and re-add :with and an accumulating counterpart? What should that accumulating counterpart be called? :acc?
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Add racket #:final clauses.
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Add simple versions of loop. loop/list, loop/sum, loop/last, loop/first, and so on.
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## foof, what a guy
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I have previously expressed some admiration for Alex and I will do it again. The source of chibi loop is extremely elegant, and all but the hairiest part is written in syntax-rules. Not only has he written my two favourite SRFIs, his input in all the other discussions I have seen is always on-point, pragmatic and generally fantastic. He neither knows of this project, nor embraces it in any way. Y'all should go look at the source of (chibi loop) though.
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## Licence
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The same BSD-styled license Alex uses for chibi-loop. |