Suggestions and EIOD update Algebraic Pentameter Petrofsky 29 Oct 2004 23:10 UTC
At http://petrofsky.org/src I've put an updated version of EIOD that supports the SRFI-46 draft. At the same location you can find alexpander, which also supports the current draft. Some comments on the SRFI: ELLIPSIS-IDENTIFIER specifies the token used for ellipsis. ... This identifier, when generated by macros, is subject to the usual rules of hygiene. That's pretty vague. I realize that all descriptions of r5rs macro hygiene are a bit vague (the earlier formal treatments done by Kohlbecker and later Clinger don't address the macro-writing-macros capabilities that ended up in r5rs), and it's reasonable not to try to make this SRFI any more rigorous than r5rs, but I think the statement above is still a little too vague. Also, it's crucial, in the absence of rigor, that you at least include an example or two showing some of the consequences of what you are informally describing. The r5rs rules of hygiene are (from r5rs 4.3): All macros defined using the pattern language are "hygienic" and "referentially transparent" and thus preserve Scheme's lexical scoping: * If a macro transformer inserts a binding for an identifier (variable or keyword), the identifier will in effect be renamed throughout its scope to avoid conflicts with other identifiers. Note that a define at top level may or may not introduce a binding; see section 5.2. * If a macro transformer inserts a free reference to an identifier, the reference refers to the binding that was visible where the transformer was specified, regardless of any local bindings that may surround the use of the macro. These "usual rules" don't say anything about ellipses. I think the minimal way to state what you are getting at (assuming that what you are trying to say is what I implemented) is something like this: When an ellipsis identifier is specified, that specification is considered a binding whose scope is the rules of the transformer. The macro system must make the usual hygienic arrangements to preserve the lexical scoping of these bindings. Here's an example you could use, whose result depends on whether or not F inserts the binding for ::: hygienicly: (let-syntax ((f (syntax-rules () ((f e) (let-syntax ((g (syntax-rules ::: () ((g (x e) (y :::)) '((x) e (y) :::))))) (g (1 2) (3 4))))))) (f :::)) => ((1) 2 (3) (4)) [ rather than ((1) (2) (3) (4)) ] I think the "tail patterns" feature would also benefit from at least one example expression, which should explicitly include the concrete result you expect. Here's one: (let-syntax ((foo (syntax-rules () ((foo x y ... z) (list x (list y ...) z))))) (foo 1 2 3 4 5)) => (1 (2 3 4) 5) At the end of the SRFI: There is no 'official' reference implementation here provided, because this SRFI defines an extension to existing macro expanders, which all vary vastly in implementation. I think you mean to say that it is impractical to provide a widely ready-to-use implementation. Al* Petrofsky suggested that there still be here provided some examples of macro expanders that have been modified to support these extensions already; Right, and that's what reference implementations are: implementations to which people can refer when implementing the specification. -al