Module Sexplib.Macro

Support for variable expansion and templates within s-expressions. The functions in this module evaluate the following constructs within s-expressions:

• (:include filename) is replaced with the list of s-expressions contained in filename, as if the contents of filename were directly inserted in place of (:include filename). A relative filename is taken with respect to the file that contains the include macro.
• (:let v (v1 ... vn) S1 ... Sm) defines a template v with arguments v1, ..., vn and body S1 ... Sm. The definition itself is removed from the input. The variables v1, ..., vn must be exactly the free variables of S1, ..., Sm (see below for the meaning of "free variable"). In particular, since a macro argument cannot be a function, a let body cannot call a macro that is defined elsewhere, only a macro that is defined in the body itself. However if you want to use the same macro inside two macros, it is still possible to define it in a separate file and include it in both macros. The list S1 ... Sm may not be empty.
• (:use v (v1 SS1) ... (vn SSn)) expands to the body of the template v with lists of s-expressions SS1, ..., SSn substituted for the arguments v1, ..., vn of v.
• (:concat S1 ... Sn) evaluates S1 ... Sn to atoms C1, ..., Cn when possible and is replaced by the string concatenation C1 | ... | Cn.

Macros other than :include will be called 'local'. All :include macros are resolved before all the local macros, which means that included file names cannot contain variables.

The occurrence of variable v in (:use v ...) can be either free or bound, depending on the surrounding sexp. The occurrence is free iff it it's not bound, and it's bound iff one of the following two conditions apply:

1. All occurrences of v1, ..., vn in the body of (:let v (v1 ... vn) S1 ... Sm) are bound.
2. All occurrences of v from the appearance of (:let v (v1 ... vn) S1 ... Sm) to the end of the sexp nesting level are bound.

Trying to :use an unbound variable is an error. Neither the top level file nor any of the included files may contain unbound variables.

The load... functions of this module mirror the corresponding functions of the Sexp module except that they expand the macros in the loaded file and may throw additional exceptions.

Example -------

Assume that input.sexp contains

   (:include defs.sexp)
   (:include template.sexp)
   (:use f (a (:use a)) (b (:use b)))
   

the file defs.sexp contains

   (:let a () hello)
   (:let b () " world")
   

and the file template.sexp contains

   (:let f (a b) (:concat (:use a) (:use b)))
   

Then load_sexp "input.sexp" will return "hello world".

Formal Evaluation Rules -----------------------

In the following v denotes a variable (an atom), S denotes a sexp, and SS denotes a list of sexps. Given a map V we write V(v ~> a) to update the map.

Evaluation rules are of the form V : SS => SS' where V is a set of bindings of the form v ~> SSv, each binding defining a template v with body SSv.

First some boilerplate rules: a sexp without macros evaluates to itself:

   V : <empty sexp list> => <empty sexp list>

   V : S  => SS1
   V : SS => SS2
   -------------------
   V : S SS => SS1 SS2

   C is an atom
   ------------
   V : C => C

   V : SS => SS'
   -----------------
   V : (SS) => (SS')
   

Now the interesting rules.

   free_vars(SSv) = {v1, ..., vn}
   V(v ~> SSv) : SS => SS'
   --------------------------------------
   V : (:let v (v1 ... vn) SSv) SS => SS'

   V(v) = SS
   V : SSi => SSi' for each i
   V(v1 ~> SS1', ..., vn ~> SSn') : SS => SS'
   ------------------------------------------
   V : (:use v (v1 SS1) ... (vn SSn)) => SS'

   v not defined in V
   -----------------------
   V : (:use v ...) => _|_

   V : Si => Ci
   Each Ci is an atom
   -------------------------------------------------------
   V : (:concat S1 ... Sn) => String.concat [C1; ...; Cn]
   

As follows from the let-rule, let definitions may only refer to the variables explicitly mentioned in the argument list. This avoids the complexities of variable capture and allows us to forego closure building.