Re: A macro and an unwanted containing list in the resulting form

[Sebastian Tennant <sebyte@smolny.plus.com>]

Quoth Pascal Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com>:
> So when you want to write s-exps, you can easily see what the result
> will be:
>
>   (defmacro build-cond (alist)
>     `(cond ,@(mapcar (lambda (each)
>                         `((equal my-var ,(car each)) ,(cdr each)))
>                      alist)))

Hmm, that's really good to know.  It's certainly a lot more readable,
but I dread to think how this C-code must look (not that I'm a
C-coder), given that you have unquoted lists within a backquoted list
within an unspliced list within another backquoted list...  It must be
a veritable spaghetti-junction, with a few chopped onions thrown in
for good measure!

> And never put a quote before a lambda expression!!!  It works by
>chance in emacs lisp, but it prevents the compiler to compile the
>anonymous function, and it wouldn't work in other lisps.

Noted, although presumably you mean you shouldn't _directly_ quote a
lambda expression? In the above code, the lambda expression occurs
within an unspliced list, itself within a backquoted list... Ah, I
suppose this has the effect of the lambda expression not being quoted
at all?

> Also, it would be better if you hadn't magic variable names in your
> macro. Instead of using my-var, let the user of the macro decide what
> variable name should be tested.  You could also  use a better name
> than build-cond; for example, string-case.  And let's improve a little
> the syntax, removing one layer of useless parentheses, getting the
> list of clauses from the &rest of the arguments:
>
>   (defmacro string-case (var-name &rest alist)
>     `(cond ,@(mapcar (lambda (each)
>                         `((equal ,var-name ,(car each)) ,(cdr each)))
>                      alist)))
>
> So now you can write:
>
>    (string-case e
>       ("hello"   . (message "hi"))
>       ("goodbye" . (message "bye")))

I understand your point, but I don't think it is necessary in this
case.

I'm writing a wrapper function to make-comint-in-buffer that also sets
up a simple process sentinel given the ("string" . FORM) alist.  The
"string" is matched against the process event ("finished" or "killed",
for example) so the variable is always 'ev' (or whatever variable I
choose to hard-code in the process sentinel's lambda function).

> But if you write:
>
>    (string-case (concat "hel" "lo")
>       ("hello"   . (message "hi"))
>       ("goodbye" . (message "bye")))
>
> the expansion will evaluate several times (concat "hel" "lo"), which
> would be very bad when the expression has side effects.  We need to
> take care of that in the macro, building a temporary and unique
> variable name with gensym, and binding it to the expression:
>
>   (defmacro string-case (strexpr &rest alist)
>     (let ((var-name (gensym)))
>        `(let ((,var-name ,strexpr))
>           (cond ,@(mapcar (lambda (each)
>                          `((equal ,var-name ,(car each)) ,(cdr each)))
>                      alist)))))

Hmm, I think I follow... just!  Excuse me if I annotate what follows
for my benefit (and hopefully other's).

> And finally, it would be better if we could have several forms in each
> branches, and if we lost the dot:

"lost the dot" = "do without cons cells" -----+
                                              |
                                     +--------
                                     |
                                    \/
>   (defmacro string-case (strexpr &rest alist)
>     (let ((var-name (gensym)))
>        `(let ((,var-name ,strexpr))
>           (cond ,@(mapcar (lambda (each)
>                          `((equal ,var-name ,(car each)) ,@(cdr each)))
>                      alist)))))                           ^
                                                            |
I see.  ----------------------------------------------------+--+
                                                               |
> (macroexpand '(string-case (aref my-strings (incf i))        |
>                  ("hello"    (message "hi") (message "ho"))  |
>                  ("goodbye"  (message "bye"))))              |
                                                               |
Unique variable name created by (gensym) ---+                  |
                                            |                  |
           ---------------------------------+                  |
           |                                                   |
          \/                                                   |
> (let ((G42298 (aref my-strings (incf i))))                   |
>   (cond                                                      |
>     ((equal G42298 "hello")                                  |
>      (message "hi") (message "ho")) <--+---------------------+
>     ((equal G42298 "goodbye")          |
>      (message "bye"))))                |
                                         |
"several forms in each branch" ----------+

Well Pascal, thank you for an excellent crash-course in macro
expansion!

I hope my annotations are correct, and not out of place, although
people not reading this in a fixed-with font will no doubt wonder what
on earth is going on, not to mention the other nasty things
line-wrapping news-manglers are inclined to do!

Sebastian