Emacs Lisp variables scoping - function

Let's consider the following functions:
(defun test (x)
"X."
(request "http://example.com"
:parser 'json-read
:complete (cl-function
(lambda (&key response &allow-other-keys)
(message "%s" x)))))
(defun test2 (x)
"X."
(funcall (cl-function (lambda (z) (message "%s" z))) x))
Calling (test2 3) Works fine and produces the desired message. Calling (test 3), however, fails with the following error:
error in process sentinel: let*: Symbol’s value as variable is void: x
error in process sentinel: Symbol’s value as variable is void: x
My guess is that request is a macro doing something weird to variable scoping. Unfortunately, the documentation does not mention anything like this. Is there a way to overcome that?

request is probably an ordinary function.
The problem is that the lambda you pass to it is not called immediately but is
saved and called later:
(defun make-function (x)
(lambda () (message "received %s" x)))
=> make-function
(defconst f (make-function 3))
=> f
(funcall f)
=> Lisp error: (void-variable x)
x that make-function bound no longer exists.
This is because by default Emacs uses dynamic binding and you need lexical binding to get the behavior you want.
If you add
;; -*- lexical-binding:t -*-
to the first line of your file, it will be compiled with lexical binding and
the code above will produce the message received 3 instead of an error.

Related

Invoking Common Lisp macros systematically with varying expressions

I am learning Common Lisp (SBCL).
I want to create a facility to invoke two (or more) macros with several similar expressions that differ only in some parameters.
I would like to define the base of the expression, then modify it with the parameters I supply. For this a lambda function definition came to mind.
As far as I know, there is no analogue to funcall for macros, so I've also wrapped the macros in lambdas.
I feel like I'm overcomplicating with with all these lambda-s and funcall-s. Is there a more elegant way?
The macros are from an external lib, so I'd prefer not to modify them. (Specifically, the fiveam testing library's finishes and signals.)
Here is a sample code:
(defmacro macro1 (body) ())
(defmacro macro2 (body) ())
(defun check-expr-with-args (do-m func args)
(dolist (arg args)
(format t "~a " arg)
(funcall do-m (lambda () (funcall func arg)))))
(let ((test-expr
#'(lambda (val) (format t "~a" val)))
(cases (list
(list #'(lambda (func) ( macro1 (funcall func)))
(list 1 2 3 4 5))
(list #'(lambda (func) ( macro2 (funcall func)))
(list -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9)))))
(dolist (c cases)
(check-expr-with-args (first c) test-expr (second c))))
Originally I've tried to pass the macro names to my check-expr-with-args function, and the expressions in quoted form, relying on lexical scoping for the parameter insertion. That didn't work out.
I think you can write a wrapper macro that produces code that invokes macro1 (and macro2). For example here I'm defining m1 that takes (i) a test expression and (ii) an expression that is expected to evaluates at runtime to a list of values.
(defmacro m1 (test-expr input-expr)
(let ((arg (gensym)))
`(dolist (,arg ,input-expr)
(macro1 ,test-expr ,arg))))
Both test-expr and input-expr are injected in a dolist expression, which binds a variable named arg. Here arg is a fresh symbol introduced with gensym, to avoid accidentally shadowing a variable or symbol-macro possibly used in test-expr.
For example:
(m1 (some-test-p) (list 1 2 3 4))
The above expands as:
(DOLIST (#:G1909 (LIST 1 2 3 4))
(MACRO1 (SOME-TEST-P) #:G1909))
The resulting expression contains MACRO1, which will also be expanded. But it is now wrapped in an expression that iterates over some list computed at runtime. Here, it is a constant but you could replace it with any other expression.
In conclusion, it is often best to combine macros at the macro level, by expanding your own macros into other ones.
I want to create a facility to invoke two (or more) macros
(defmacro invoke-macros (macro-forms)
`(progn ,#macro-forms))
with several similar expressions that differ only in some parameters.
(defmacro invoke-macros (macro-names &rest macro-arguments)
`(progn ,#(loop for m in macro-names
appending (loop for a in macro-arguments
collecting `(,m ,#a)))))
Check:
[1]> (macroexpand '(invoke-macros (m1 m2) (a b c) (d e f)))
(PROGN (M1 A B C) (M1 D E F) (M2 A B C) (M2 D E F)) ;
T
Of course, this works with any operators, including functions, not only macros; we should call this invoke-operators. Or some better name reflecting that we are creating a cartesian product from operators and argument syntax.
If we need the returned values, we can change progn to list. Or possibly values if the number of combinations isn't expected to be large.
If this had to be a function:
(defun invoke-ops (op-names &rest op-arguments)
(loop for o in op-names
appending (loop for a in op-arguments
collecting (eval `(,o ,#a)))))
Check:
[1]> (invoke-ops '(list +) '(1 2) '(10 20))
((1 2) (10 20) 3 30)
Since invoke-ops is now a function, we have to quote the arguments.
There is no funcall for macros. If you gain access to the expander function of a macro, then there is a funcall, but all it does is perform the code transformation; it won't invoke the macro.
The only ways to invoke the code generated by a macro are: you can eval the code, or you can compile the code and funcall it. The latter approach requires a function, so you place the code into a lambda expression first:
(funcall (compile nil `(lambda () ,code-output-by-macro)))
The nil argument of compile is the function name; we are telling compile that we are not dealing with a named function definition. We supply the code in the second argument. In some Common Lisp implementations, there is no evaluator; the eval function does something similar to:
(defun eval (code)
(funcall (compile nil `(lambda () ,code))))

Common Lisp: how to pass keyword arguments to another function?

Common Lisp newbie here. I am having trouble understanding parameter passing in Lisp functions. For example, imagine the following function definition in Common Lisp (say, SBCL):
(defun foo (x <&-keyword goes here> args)
(let ((v (make-hash-table args)))
(setf (gethash "foo" v) x)
v))
My question is: is there a &-keyword I could specify to pass keyword arguments in foo to make-hash-table in this situation? I already tried &rest as a &-keyword, and it always gives me the following warning:
; caught WARNING:
; The function MAKE-HASH-TABLE is called with odd number of keyword arguments.
I also read about &allow-other-keys as a possible &-keyword, yet don't seem to find how can the other keys be used by make-hash-table within foo. Thus, I'm stumped. Can keyword parameters be passed to internal function calls in Common Lisp? If so, how?
What you are looking for is apply:
(defun foo (x &rest mht-arguments)
(let ((v (apply #'make-hash-table mht-arguments)))
(setf (gethash "foo" v) x)
v))
See also my other answer on how to combine that with &key.

json-get function in lisp

In these day i'm working to a json parse in prolog and lisp.
yesterday with your help i finished the prolog project and now i need help again.
the funcion is always json-get but now in lisp.
this is the functin that i wrote:
(defun json-get (json_obj fields &optional n)
(let ((place (assoc fields json_obj :test 'string=)))
(if (null place)
n
(ns (second place) t)))
the behavior of the funtion should be the same of the prolog predicate.
for example if the input is:
CL-prompt> (defparameter x (json-parse "{\"nome\" : \"Arthur\",\"cognome\" : \"Dent\"}"))
X
CL-prompt> x
(json-obj ("nome" "Arthur") ("cognome" "Dent"))
the output should be:
CL-prompt> (json-get x "cognome")
"Dent"
insted, if the input is:
(json-get (json-parse
"{\"name\" : \"Zaphod\",
\"heads\" : [[\"Head1\"], [\"Head2\"]]}")
"heads" 1 0)
the output should be:
"Head2"
the function that i wrote is totally wrong?
P.S. for this project are forbidden functions like SET, SETQ, SETF e MULTIPLE-VALUE-SETQ and DO, DO*, DOTIMES, DOLIST e LOOP and DEFPARAMETER, DEFVAR e DEFCOSTANT inside a function
thanks guys
edit 1:
this is the description of this funcion,
a json-get function that accepts a JSON object
(represented in Common Lisp, as produced by the json_parse function) and a series of
"Fields", retrieve the corresponding object. A field represented by N (with N a number
greater than or equal to 0) represents an index of a JSON array.
edit 2 :
if i try to run json-get lisp answer me with:
Error: The variable PLACE is unbound.
You need to implement this recursively. You also need to distinguish JSON arrays (which are implemented as a list of elements prefixed with json-array) and JSON objects (which are implemented as an association list.
(defun json-get (json_obj fields)
(if (null fields) ; base case of recursion
json_obj
(let* ((cur-key (car fields))
(current (cond ((and (integerp cur-key)
(eq (car json_obj) 'json-array))
(nth (1+ cur-key) json_obj)) ; add 1 to skip over JSON-ARRAY
((and (stringp cur-key)
(eq (car json_obj) 'json-obj))
(second (assoc cur-key (cdr json_obj) :test #'string=))) ; Use CDR to skip over JSON-OBJ
(t (error "~S is not a JSON object or array or ~s is not appropriate key" json_obj cur-key)))))
(json-get current (cdr fields)))))
fields has to be a list of fields, so your second example would be:
(json-get (json-parse
"{\"name\" : \"Zaphod\",
\"heads\" : [[\"Head1\"], [\"Head2\"]]}")
'("heads" 1 0))
and the first example should be:
(json-get x '("cognome"))

elisp: Test an object is a function

I am trying to identify a safe way to check whether an object is a function (named or anonymous).
As functionp or fboundp do not work as I expected giving errors, I am trying with:
(defun function-check (x)
(and (boundp 'x)
(if (symbolp x) (fboundp x)
(functionp x))))
Apparently it works with several types of objects:
(setq lfun (lambda () "hello"))
(function-check lfun) ; -> t
(setq nfun 'buffer-name)
(function-check nfun) ; -> t
(setq slfun '(lambda () "hello"))
(function-check slfun) ; -> t
(function-check 'not-bound) ; -> safe nil
Anyway, looking at my code it seems too verbose and convoluted for such a simple task.
Is it possible to make it better?
Update:
As asked, I clarify what I mean with "functionp, fboundp do now work as I expected".
Say we want to detect a valid hook. This does not work:
(setq var 'buffer-name)
(functionp 'var) ;nil
(fboundp 'var) ;nil
We need to use:
(functionp var) ;t
(fboundp var) ;t
While this works, we need to make sure that var is not void, otherwise we get errors:
(functionp void-var) ;Lisp-error
(fboundp void-var) ;Lisp-error
Depending on the situations, this implies adding extra control code, compiling the code, etc.
A valid hook can be any callable object: macros, functions, lambdas are valid hooks. Anyway functionp does not work with macros:
(defmacro mac () "hello")
(functionp 'mac) ;nil
While fbound does not work with lambda expressions:
(functionp '(lambda () t)) ;t
(functionp (lambda () t)) ;t
(fboundp '(lambda () t)) ;Lisp error
(fboundp (lambda () t)) ;Lisp error
This happens also if assigning the expression to a variable:
(setq var '(lambda () t))
(functionp var) ;t
(fboundp var) ;Lisp error
which might require testing if var is a symbol.
As I understand, there is no straight way to test an object is callable, hence my attempt.
The (boundp 'x) check is a bit tautological here. If you're compiling your code with dynamic binding, (boundp 'x) will always be t, since x is bound when entering the function. If you're compiling your code with lexical binding, (boundp 'x) will probably be nil, unless you somehow create a "global" variable called x. In neither case will the result depend on the argument you pass to the function.
So I think you just need this:
(defun function-check (x)
(if (symbolp x)
(fboundp x)
(functionp x)))
That is, check that x is either a symbol that has a function binding, or a lambda function.
I found an interesting example of a function predicate used in the AUCTeX package.
(defun TeX-function-p (arg)
"Return non-nil if ARG is callable as a function."
(or (and (fboundp 'byte-code-function-p)
(byte-code-function-p arg))
(and (listp arg)
(eq (car arg) 'lambda))
(and (symbolp arg)
(fboundp arg))))
This test is used in AUCTeX before calling the (component of) TeX commands obtained by parsing the alist TeX-expand-list.
If an expansion found in the alist is a function, then it is called with:
(apply expansion arguments)
TeX-function-p is thorough, as TeX-expand-list is huge and customisable, and expansions might also result in objects which are not symbols or symbols which are not bound.
This function answers my question in that it shows that functionp might not always be sufficient to test for a callable object.

nested lambda in scheme

I'm trying to define a function in scheme that prints a message when called, followed by a newline. To do this I've attempted to use nested lambda like this:
(define message
(lambda (msg)
(lambda (newL)
(newline)
)
(display msg))
)
However, when I do this, and call the function like:
(message "#f")
it only prints the #f, and does not create a newline. If I reverse the lambda orders in the function and swap the position of the newL and msg lambda's, then it only prints a newline and doesn't display the message!
The function is called in this block of code:
(define (permute upList)
(if (null? upList)
(message "#f")
;permutation code
)
)
The error message received when not using nested lambda's is as follows:
Error: call of non-procedure: #
Call history:
<syntax> (permute (quote ()))
<syntax> (quote ())
<syntax> (##core#quote ())
<eval> (permute (quote ()))
<eval> [permute] (null? upList)
<eval> [permute] (message "#f")
<eval> [message] ((display msg) (newline))
<eval> [message] (display msg)
<eval> [message] (newline) <--
Any help would be appreciated.
In this code, you only create a procedure object, which is then immediately discarded:
(define message
(lambda (msg)
(lambda (newL)
(newline))
(display msg)))
It's like doing:
(define message
(lambda (msg)
1234
(display msg)))
The 1234 here is evaluated, but the value is completely ignored.
If you have a procedure and you want to call it immediately, you have to wrap in an extra set of parentheses (because in Scheme, in general, parens represent application):
(define message
(lambda (msg)
((lambda (newL)
(newline)) #f)
(display msg)))
But, as others have pointed out, there's no need to create a nested lambda in this case. Plus, the procedure ignores its argument anyway, which is why I had to invent an argument to pass; I used #f because that's the typical "don't care" value. You can just do:
(define message
(lambda (msg)
(newline)
(display msg)))