Adding Backquote Templating to uLisp

The backquote special form and its reader-macro version are incredibly useful in macros and to make Lisp templates.

Part 1 - the Functions

Move the table entries for cons and append around in the table so they are right after quote. Then, add 3 new entries in the enum builtins. You can also move the string and doc entries but you don’t have to. Then, add table and builtins enum entries for the 3 new functions:

    { string13, sp_quote, 0311, NULL },
    { string57, fn_cons, 0122, doc57 },
    { string92, fn_append, 0107, doc92 },
    { stringbackquote, tf_backquote, 0211, docbackquote },
    { stringunquote, bq_invalid, 0311, docunquote },
    { stringuqsplicing, bq_invalid, 0311, docunquotesplicing },
    { string14, sp_defun, 0327, doc14 },
    { string15, sp_defvar, 0313, doc15 },

enum builtins: builtin_t { NIL, TEE, NOTHING, OPTIONAL, INITIALELEMENT, ELEMENTTYPE, BIT, AMPREST, LAMBDA, LET, LETSTAR,
CLOSURE, PSTAR, QUOTE,
CONS, APPEND, BACKQUOTE, UNQUOTE, UNQUOTE_SPLICING,
DEFUN, DEFVAR, CAR, FIRST, CDR, REST, NTH, AREF, STRINGFN, PINMODE, DIGITALWRITE,
ANALOGREAD, REGISTER, FORMAT, 
 };

Add these functions and their table entries:

// see https://github.com/kanaka/mal/blob/master/process/guide.md#step-7-quoting
// and https://github.com/kanaka/mal/issues/103#issuecomment-159047401

object* reverse (object* what) {
    object* result = NULL;
    for (; what != NULL; what = cdr(what)) {
        push(car(what), result);
    }
    return result;
}

object* process_backquote (object* arg, size_t level = 0) {
    // "If ast is a map or a symbol, return a list containing: the "quote" symbol, then ast."
    if (arg == NULL || atom(arg)) return quoteit(QUOTE, arg);
    // "If ast is a list starting with the "unquote" symbol, return its second element."
    if (listp(arg) && symbolp(first(arg))) {
        switch (builtin(first(arg)->name)) {
            case BACKQUOTE: return process_backquote(second(arg), level + 1);
            case UNQUOTE: return level == 0 ? second(arg) : process_backquote(second(arg), level - 1);
            default: break;
        }
    }
    // "If ast is a list failing previous test, the result will be a list populated by the following process."
    // "The result is initially an empty list. Iterate over each element elt of ast in reverse order:"
    object* result = NULL;
    object* rev_arg = reverse(arg);
    for (; rev_arg != NULL; rev_arg = cdr(rev_arg)) {
        object* element = car(rev_arg);
        // "If elt is a list starting with the "splice-unquote" symbol,
        // replace the current result with a list containing: the "concat" symbol,
        // the second element of elt, then the previous result."
        if (listp(element) && symbolp(first(element)) && builtin(first(element)->name) == UNQUOTE_SPLICING) {
            object* x = second(element);
            if (level > 0) x = process_backquote(x, level - 1);
            result = cons(bsymbol(APPEND), cons(x, cons(result, nil)));
        }
        // "Else replace the current result with a list containing:
        // the "cons" symbol, the result of calling quasiquote with
        // elt as argument, then the previous result."
        else result = cons(bsymbol(CONS), cons(process_backquote(element, level), cons(result, nil)));
    }
    return result;
}

// "Add the quasiquote special form. This form does the same than quasiquoteexpand,
// but evaluates the result in the current environment before returning it, either by
// recursively calling EVAL with the result and env, or by assigning ast with the result
// and continuing execution at the top of the loop (TCO)."
object* tf_backquote (object* args, object* env) {
    object* result = process_backquote(first(args));
    // Tail call
    return result;
}

object* bq_invalid (object* args, object* env) {
    (void)args, (void)env;
    error2(PSTR("not valid outside backquote"));
    // unreachable
    return NULL;
}

const char stringbackquote[] PROGMEM = "backquote";
const char stringunquote[] PROGMEM = "unquote";
const char stringuqsplicing[] PROGMEM = "unquote-splicing";

const char docbackquote[] PROGMEM = "(backquote form) or `form\n"
"Expands the unquotes present in the form as a syntactic template. Most commonly used in macros.";
const char docunquote[] PROGMEM = "(unquote form) or ,form\n"
"Marks a form to be evaluated and the value inserted when (backquote) expands the template.";
const char docunquotesplicing[] PROGMEM = "(unquote-splicing form) or ,@form\n"
"Marks a form to be evaluated and the value spliced in when (backquote) expands the template.\n"
"If the value returned when evaluating form is not a proper list (backquote) will bork very badly.";

Part 2 - the Reader Macros

Add 3 new tokens to the enum tokens: BACKQUO, UNQUO, and UNSPLICE:

enum token { UNUSED, BRA, KET, QUO, DOT,
BACKQUO, UNQUO, UNSPLICE
};

In nextitem(), add the following code after the code that returns the existing tokens:

object *nextitem (gfun_t gfun) {
    int ch = gfun();
    while(issp(ch)) ch = gfun();

    if (ch == ';') {
        do { ch = gfun(); if (ch == ';' || ch == '(') setflag(NOECHO); }
        while(ch != '(');
    }
    if (ch == '\n') ch = gfun();
    if (ch == -1) return nil;
    if (ch == ')') return (object *)KET;
    if (ch == '(') return (object *)BRA;
    if (ch == '\'') return (object *)QUO;
    if (ch == '`') return (object*)BACKQUO;
    if (ch == '@') return (object*)UNSPLICE; // maintain compatibility with old Dave Astels code
    if (ch == ',') {
        ch = gfun();
        if (ch == '@') return (object *)UNSPLICE;
        else {
            LastChar = ch;
            return (object *)UNQUO;
        }
    }

In the while loop of readrest() add this:

while (item != (object*)KET) {
    if (item == (object*)BRA) item = readrest(gfun);
    else if (item == (object*)QUO) item = cons(bsymbol(QUOTE), cons(read(gfun), NULL));
    else if (item == (object*)BACKQUO) item = cons(bsymbol(BACKQUOTE), cons(read(gfun), NULL));
    else if (item == (object*)UNQUO) item = cons(bsymbol(UNQUOTE), cons(read(gfun), NULL));
    else if (item == (object*)UNSPLICE) item = cons(bsymbol(UNQUOTE_SPLICING), cons(read(gfun), NULL));
    else if (item == (object*)PERIOD) {

And in read() add this:

object* read (gfun_t gfun) {
    object* item = nextitem(gfun);
    if (item == (object*)KET) error2(PSTR("unexpected close paren"));
    if (item == (object*)BRA) return readrest(gfun);
    if (item == (object*)DOT) return read(gfun);
    if (item == (object*)QUO) return cons(bsymbol(QUOTE), cons(read(gfun), NULL));
    if (item == (object*)BACKQUO) return cons(bsymbol(BACKQUOTE), cons(read(gfun), NULL));
    if (item == (object*)UNQUO) return cons(bsymbol(UNQUOTE), cons(read(gfun), NULL));
    if (item == (object*)UNSPLICE) return cons(bsymbol(UNQUOTE_SPLICING), cons(read(gfun), NULL));
    return item;
}

dragoncoder047’s site

projects, ideas, and everything else

Adding Backquote Templating to uLisp

Part 1 - the Functions

Part 2 - the Reader Macros