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Erl2 - a program generator for a new dialect of erlang

Download from: https://github.com/joearms/erl2.git

Please note: This is a prototype and is not of production quality

Rational

There are two types of thing in Erlang. Forms and Expressions 
and the two don't mix.

The shell is an expression evaluator. The shell reads an expression
evaluates it and prints the result.

A module is a sequence of forms. The compiler takes a sequence of forms
and compiles this into an object file.

You can't put forms in shell because they are not expressions. And you
can't put expressions in a module because they are not forms.

This is a mess - in many other languages the input to the shell
is the same as the input to the compiler - but not in Erlang.

There is a fix to this. "All" you have to to is define a form to be an expression.
This needs a small syntactic change to the language.

Suppose we add a new syntactic form:

    def fac = fun(0) -> 1; fun(N) -> N*fac(N-1) end.

But we define this to be an expression with a side effect. It's value
can be anything we like (say true). But it has a side effect. The side effect
is to define the factorial function.

With this change we could write (in the shell):

   > def fac = fun(0) -> 1; fun(N) -> N*fac(N-1) end.
   true.
   > fac(5).
   120

With this and a few other changes the shell, modules, and escript become
more or less idential.

To test this I have modified the erlang grammar, and the evaluator
I have also added letrec's and a fixed a few other small things
that annoyed me.

%% This is an erl2 script

> cat test.erl2

%% we start with defMods
%%  Why? we need to know if
%%    X:Y means a call to the Erlang module X or the module we are defining
%%    here.
%%  

defMods shell mod1 mod2 mod3 mod4 end.

addMod shell. 

%% hello world

def hello() -> io:format("Hello world~n") end.
hello().


def test(N) -> io:format("Passing test ~p~n",[N]) end.
def print(X) -> io:format("~p~n", [X]) end.

test(1).

print("factorial defined as a fun").

def fac = fun(0) -> 1; (N) -> N*fac(N-1) end.

print("Unit test of factorial").

120 = fac(5).

print("Print a large factorial").

print(fac(50)).
test(3).

print("define factorial using a fun").

def fac1 = fun(0) -> 1;(N) -> N*fac1(N-1) end.
print(fac1(50)).

test(4).

beginFunc f1/1 end.

  %% f1 is a local fucntion - that is in the export list
  %% so it will be exported

  shell:test(5).

  def f1(X) -> {f1,X} end.

  {f1,123} = f1(123).

  shell:test(5).      %% test(N) would mean in the local scope
                      %% so we have to call this shell:test()
 
  %% define a local function
  
  def local(X) -> {local, X} end.
  {local,222} = local(222).
  shell:test(7).

endFunc.

%% Test that I can call the exported function

{f1, a} = f1(a).
test(8).

%% test that calling the local function will fail

{'EXIT', _} = (catch local(222)).
test(9).

%% Now make two functions both using the
%% same auxilliary functions to test name hiding is correct
%% BOTH of these use the same auxilliary function

beginFunc f2/1 end.
 def f2(X) -> foo(X) end.
 def foo(X) -> {f2foo, X} end.     %% foo is not exported
endFunc.

beginFunc f3/1 end.
 def foo(X) -> {f3foo, X} end.    %% foo is not exported
 def f3(X) -> foo(X) end.
endFunc.

{f2foo,a} = f2(a).	
{f3foo,a} = f3(a).
test(10).

%% add unit tests inside a function definition

beginFunc f4/1 end.
 def foo(X,Y) -> {f3foo, X+Y} end.    %% foo is not exported
 {f3foo,5} = foo(2,3).
 def f3(X) -> foo(1,X) end.
 {f3foo,6} = f3(5).
endFunc.

test(11).

print("Modules").

addMod mod1.

defExports a/1 b/2 c/3 end.  %% ignored for now

 def test(N) -> io:format("Passing local test in mod1:~p~n",[N]) end.

 def a() -> {mod1,a} end.
 {mod1, a} = a().
 shell:test(12).

 def a(X) -> {mod1,a,X} end.
 {mod1, a, 12} = a(12).

 shell:test(13).  
 test(14).

addMod shell.

print("Testing that we can call functions in a module from outside").

{mod1, a, 12} = mod1:a(12).	
test(15).

{'EXIT', _} = (catch mod1:b(12)).
test(16).

%% Mod with private functions

addMod mod2.

defExports a/1 b/2 c/3 end.  %% ignored for now

 def test(N) -> io:format("Passing local test ~p in mod2~n",[N]) end.
 test(17).

 beginFunc a/1 end.
    def a(X) -> b(X) end.
    def b(X) -> {mod2,b,X} end.
 endFunc.

 test(18).

 {mod2,b,123} = a(123).
 test(19).

addMod shell.
 
{mod2,b,123} = mod2:a(123).
test(20).

print("Meta programming ...").

%% We can bind variable *OUTSIDE* a module and
%% use them *inside* the module

F25 = fac(25).

addMod mod3.
 defExports a/1 end.  %% ignored for now

 def a(N) -> F25 + N end.

addMod shell.

print(mod3:a(10)).

print("Just imagine what you could do with this ...").

print("More fancy stuff").

%% We can do unit tests *inside the module*
%% If the unit tests fail - we crash and the module will not be generated

addMod mod4.
 
 defExports fac/1 end. 
 def fac(0) -> 1; fac(N) -> N*fac(N-1) end.
 
 %% unit tests
 120 = fac(5).
 shell:print("unit test worked").

 def twice(X) -> 3*X end.
 9 = twice(3).
 shell:print("** I know this is bad but don't worry").

addMod shell.

test(21).

print("Horray - everything worked dump the results into a file
       which we can compile later").

erl2:make_mods().








--------------------------------------------------------------------

We can run this as follows:

./erl2 tests.erl2
Hello world
Passing test 1
"factorial defined as a fun"
"Unit test of factorial"
"Print a large factorial"
30414093201713378043612608166064768844377641568960512000000000000
Passing test 3
"define factorial using a fun"
30414093201713378043612608166064768844377641568960512000000000000
Passing test 4
Passing test 5
Passing test 7
Passing test 8
** undefined function:{local,1}
Passing test 9
Passing test 10
Passing test 11
"Modules"
Passing test 12
Passing test 13
Passing local test in mod1:14
"Testing that we can call functions in a module from outside"
Passing test 15
Passing test 16
Passing local test 17 in mod2
Passing local test 18 in mod2
Passing local test 19 in mod2
Passing test 20
"Meta programming ..."
15511210043330985984000010
"Just imagine what you could do with this ..."
"More fancy stuff"
"unit test worked"
Passing test 21
"Horray - everything worked dump the results into a file\n       which we can compile later"
Created:"all.gen"
Success

Note1: The output is in all.gen
       This contains sufficient information to build all the modules
       defined in the script - or they can be built into a single module

Note2: If unit tests fail then no code is generated.

       This is rather nice - the compiler will not compile a file
       unless it is passes the unit tests.

       Normally we do this:

          1) compile
          2) test

        Now we do this:

          1) test
          2) compile
          3) nothing - don't need to do the unit tests -

Note3: Erl2 has no macros - they are not necessay 
       the section called metaprogramming above explains this

Have fun ...