How can I write this Clojure macro more idiomatically? - clojure

(defmacro get-color [color-name]
`#(thi.ng.color.core/as-int32 (var-get (resolve (symbol "thi.ng.color.core"
(str '~color-name))))))
I like to avoid using the (var-get (resolve (symbol ... (str '~parem)))). Something like thi.ng.color.core/(~color-name).
(I am using this macro in a very small personal project, and I don't care if it's really bad practice to create a macro for this use case. Though I like knowing why it would be problematic in bigger projects.)

(require 'thi.ng.color.core)
(defmacro get-color
[color-name]
(let [sym (symbol "thi.ng.color.core"
(str color-name))]
`#(thi.ng.color.core/as-int32 ~sym)))
(comment
(get-color "RED") ;;=> 4294901760
(get-color RED) ;;=> 4294901760
)

Related

Why in this example calling (f arg) and calling the body of f explicitly yields different results?

First, I have no experience with CS and Clojure is my first language, so pardon if the following problem has a solution, that is immediately apparent for a programmer.
The summary of the question is as follows: one needs to create atoms at will with unknown yet symbols at unknown times. My approach revolves around a) storing temporarily the names of the atoms as strings in an atom itself; b) changing those strings to symbols with a function; c) using a function to add and create new atoms. The problem pertains to step "c": calling the function does not create new atoms, but using its body does create them.
All steps taken in the REPL are below (comments follow code blocks):
user=> (def atom-pool
#_=> (atom ["a1" "a2"]))
#'user/atom-pool
'atom-pool is the atom that stores intermediate to-be atoms as strings.
user=> (defn atom-symbols []
#_=> (mapv symbol (deref atom-pool)))
#'user/atom-symbols
user=> (defmacro populate-atoms []
#_=> (let [qs (vec (remove #(resolve %) (atom-symbols)))]
#_=> `(do ~#(for [s qs]
#_=> `(def ~s (atom #{}))))))
#'user/populate-atoms
'populate-atoms is the macro, that defines those atoms. Note, the purpose of (remove #(resolve %) (atom-symbols)) is to create only yet non-existing atoms. 'atom-symbols reads 'atom-pool and turns its content to symbols.
user=> (for [s ['a1 'a2 'a-new]]
#_=> (resolve s))
(nil nil nil)
Here it is confirmed that there are no 'a1', 'a2', 'a-new' atoms as of yet.
user=> (defn new-atom [a]
#_=> (do
#_=> (swap! atom-pool conj a)
#_=> (populate-atoms)))
#'user/new-atom
'new-atom is the function, that first adds new to-be atom as string to `atom-pool. Then 'populate-atoms creates all the atoms from 'atom-symbols function.
user=> (for [s ['a1 'a2 'a-new]]
#_=> (resolve s))
(#'user/a1 #'user/a2 nil)
Here we see that 'a1 'a2 were created as clojure.lang.Var$Unbound just by defining a function, why?
user=> (new-atom "a-new")
#'user/a2
user=> (for [s ['a1 'a2 'a-new]]
#_=> (resolve s))
(#'user/a1 #'user/a2 nil)
Calling (new-atom "a-new") did not create the 'a-new atom!
user=> (do
#_=> (swap! atom-pool conj "a-new")
#_=> (populate-atoms))
#'user/a-new
user=> (for [s ['a1 'a2 'a-new]]
#_=> (resolve s))
(#'user/a1 #'user/a2 #'user/a-new)
user=>
Here we see that resorting explicitly to 'new-atom's body did create the 'a-new atom. 'a-new is a type of clojure.lang.Atom, but 'a1 and 'a2 were skipped due to already being present in the namespace as clojure.lang.Var$Unbound.
Appreciate any help how to make it work!
EDIT: Note, this is an example. In my project the 'atom-pool is actually a collection of maps (atom with maps). Those maps have keys {:name val}. If a new map is added, then I create a corresponding atom for this map by parsing its :name key.
"The summary of the question is as follows: one needs to create atoms at will with unknown yet symbols at unknown times. "
This sounds like a solution looking for a problem. I would generally suggest you try another way of achieving whatever the actual functionality is without generating vars at runtime, but if you must, you should use intern and leave out the macro stuff.
You cannot solve this with macros since macros are expanded at compile time, meaning that in
(defn new-atom [a]
(do
(swap! atom-pool conj a)
(populate-atoms)))
populate-atoms is expanded only once; when the (defn new-atom ...) form is compiled, but you're attempting to change its expansion when new-atom is called (which necessarily happens later).
#JoostDiepenmaat is right about why populate-atoms is not behaving as expected. You simply cannot do this using macros, and it is generally best to avoid generating vars at runtime. A better solution would be to define your atom-pool as a map of keywords to atoms:
(def atom-pool
(atom {:a1 (atom #{}) :a2 (atom #{})}))
Then you don't need atom-symbols or populate-atoms because you're not dealing with vars at compile-time, but typical data structures at run-time. Your new-atom function could look like this:
(defn new-atom [kw]
(swap! atom-pool assoc kw (atom #{})))
EDIT: If you don't want your new-atom function to override existing atoms which might contain actual data instead of just #{}, you can check first to see if the atom exists in the atom-pool:
(defn new-atom [kw]
(when-not (kw #atom-pool)
(swap! atom-pool assoc kw (atom #{}))))
I've already submitted one answer to this question, and I think that that answer is better, but here is a radically different approach based on eval:
(def atom-pool (atom ["a1" "a2"]))
(defn new-atom! [name]
(load-string (format "(def %s (atom #{}))" name)))
(defn populate-atoms! []
(doseq [x atom-pool]
(new-atom x)))
format builds up a string where %s is substituted with the name you're passing in. load-string reads the resulting string (def "name" (atom #{})) in as a data structure and evals it (this is equivalent to (eval (read-string "(def ...)
Of course, then we're stuck with the problem of only defining atoms that don't already exist. We could change the our new-atom! function to make it so that we only create an atom if it doesn't already exist:
(defn new-atom! [name]
(when-not (resolve (symbol name))
(load-string (format "(def %s (atom #{}))" name name))))
The Clojure community seems to be against using eval in most cases, as it is usually not needed (macros or functions will do what you want in 99% of cases*), and eval can be potentially unsafe, especially if user input is involved -- see Brian Carper's answer to this question.
*After attempting to solve this particular problem using macros, I came to the conclusion that it either cannot be done without relying on eval, or my macro-writing skills just aren't good enough to get the job done with a macro!
At any rate, I still think my other answer is a better solution here -- generally when you're getting way down into the nuts & bolts of writing macros or using eval, there is probably a simpler approach that doesn't involve metaprogramming.

Run embedded code from a different namespace

I often want to run a small snippet of code in another namespace - perhaps a copy/pasted snippet of DSL code for example, and I'd like to avoid having to either:
Add a bunch of use clauses to my current namespace declaration. This makes the ns declaration messy, adds extra maintenance work and sometimes risks name clashes.
Add require clauses and be forced to add a namespace qualifier or alias to everything. Now my DSL code is much messier.
Ideally I'd prefer to be able to do something like:
(with-ns my.namespace
(foo bar baz))
Where foo, bar might be symbols within my.namespace, but baz is a symbol in the current (enclosing) namespace. So the code is running in something like a "local" namespace that "uses" my-namespace within its scope but otherwise doesn't affect the surrounding namespace.
Is there a standard/better way to do this? Or is this a crazy thing to want to do?
Try this one:
(defmacro with-ns [[namespace symbols] & body]
`(do (use '[~namespace :only ~symbols])
(let [result# (do ~#body)]
(doseq [sym# (map #(:name (meta (val %)))
(filter #(= (name '~namespace)
(str (:ns (meta (val %)))))
(ns-refers *ns*)))]
(ns-unmap *ns* sym#))
result#)))
(with-ns [clojure.string [split upper-case]]
(split (upper-case "it works!") #" "))
-> ["IT" "WORKS!"]
After work it removes used symbols from current ns.
This can be achieved using a macro as shown below.
NOTE: It may break in certain cases as I just tried it with a simple example
;Some other ns
(ns hello)
(def h1 10) ;in hello
(def h2 11) ;in hello
;main ns in which executing code
(ns user)
(defmacro with-ns [target-ns body]
(clojure.walk/postwalk
(fn [val]
(if (symbol? val)
(if (resolve (symbol (str target-ns "/" val)))
(symbol (str target-ns "/" val))
val) val)) body))
(def u1 100) ;in user
(with-ns hello (do (+ h1 u1))) ;110
I eventually found a macro in the old Clojure contrib that does part of this quite neatly:
(defmacro with-ns
"Evaluates body in another namespace. ns is either a namespace
object or a symbol. This makes it possible to define functions in
namespaces other than the current one."
[ns & body]
`(binding [*ns* (the-ns ~ns)]
~#(map (fn [form] `(eval '~form)) body)))

Converting a string into a function that is not in a namespace in clojure

Here is the sample code I want to get to work:
(letfn [(CONC [f] f)
(CONT [f] (str "\newline" f))]
((voodoo "CONC") "hamster"))
Is there some voodo that will make it call the CONC function with hamster as the parameter? That is, is there some way to convert the string "CONC" into a function that is not bound to a namespace but rather to a local binding?
EDIT:
To be clearer, the way this will be called is:
(map #((voodoo (:tag %)) (:value %))
[
{:tag "CONC" :value "hamster"}
{:tag "CONT" :value "gerbil"}
]
)
I'd probably solve this by creating a map of functions indexed by strings:
(def voodoo
{"CONC" (fn [f] f)
"CONT" (fn [f] (str "\newline" f))})
Then your desired code should work directly (exploiting the fact that a map is a function that looks up it's argument)
(map #((voodoo (:tag %)) (:value %))
[
{:tag "CONC" :value "hamster"}
{:tag "CONT" :value "gerbil"}
]
)
Note that the functions here are fully anonymous - you don't need them to be referenced anywhere in the namespace for this to work. In my view this is a good thing, because unless you also need the functions somewhere else then it's best to avoid polluting your top-level namespace too much.
No. Eval does not have access to the local/lexical environment, ever.
Edit: This is not a very good answer, and not really accurate either. You could write voodoo as a macro, and then it doesn't need runtime access to the lexical environment, just compile-time. However, this means it would only work if you know at compile time that the function you want to call is x, and so it wouldn't be very useful - why not just type x instead of (voodoo "x")?
(defmacro voodoo [fname]
(symbol fname))
(letfn [(x [y] (inc y))]
((voodoo "x") 2))
;; 3
(letfn [(x [y] (inc y))]
(let [f "x"]
((voodoo f) 2)))
;; error
Well, it's sort of possible:
(defmacro voodoo [s]
(let [env (zipmap (map (partial list 'quote) (keys &env))
(keys &env))]
`(if-let [v# (~env (symbol ~s))]
v#
(throw (RuntimeException. "no such local")))))
...and now we can do weird stuff like this:
user> (defn example [s]
(letfn [(foo [x] {:foo x})
(bar [x] {:bar x})]
((voodoo s) :quux)))
#'user/example
user> (example "foo")
{:foo :quux}
user> (example "bar")
{:bar :quux}
user> (example "quux")
; Evaluation aborted.
user> *e
#<RuntimeException java.lang.RuntimeException: no such local>
That "Evaluation aborted" means an exception was thrown.
You could also replace the throw branch of the if in voodoo with (resolve (symbol ~s)) to defer to the globals if no local is found:
(defmacro voodoo [s]
(let [env (zipmap (map (partial list 'quote) (keys &env))
(keys &env))]
`(if-let [v# (~env (symbol ~s))]
v#
(resolve (symbol ~s)))))
...and now this works with definition of example as above (though note that if you are experimenting at the REPL, you will need to recompile example after redefining voodoo):
user> (defn quux [x] {:quux x})
#'user/quux
user> (example "quux")
{:quux :quux}
Now, this is an abuse of Clojure's facilities which one would do well to try to do without. If one cannot, one should probably turn to evalive by Michael Fogus; it's a library which provides an "eval-with-locals" facility in the form of an evil function and a couple of utilities. The functionality seems to be well factored too, e.g. something like the ~(zipmap ...) thing above is encapsulated as a macro and evil there appears to be almost a drop-in replacement for eval (add the env parameter and you're good to go). I haven't read the source properly, but I probably will now, looks like fun. :-)
Im not really clear what you are asking for so i'll try a couple answers:
if you have a string that is the name of the function you wish to call:
(def name "+")
((find-var (symbol (str *ns* "/" name))) 1 2 3)
this would give voodoo a deffinition like this:
(defn voodoo [name args] (apply (find-var (symbol (str *ns* "/" name))) args))
#'clojure.core/voodoo
clojure.core=> (voodoo "+" [1 2 3])
6
clojure.core=>
this assumes your function is in the current namepace ns.
if you want to turn a string into a function you could use this pattern
(let [f (eval (read-string "(fn [] 4)"))] (f))

Clojure macro evaluation of strings

I am trying to create a clojure macro that converts an entered symbol to a string. However, when I do this:
(defmacro convert-to-string [something]
`(call-converted "~something")
)
(macroexpand '(convert-to-string convert-this))
: I get :
(call-converted "~something")
: instead of :
(call-converted "~convert-this")
: does anyone show me how I could do this?
You might consider using keywords (or quoted symbols) and a function, rather than a macro:
(defn convert-to-string [x] (call-converted (name x)))
(convert-to-string :foo)
(convert-to-string 'foo)
If you really want a macro:
(defmacro convert-to-string [x] `(call-converted ~(name x)))
(macroexpand-1 '(convert-to-string foo))
=> (user/call-converted "foo")
I am in no way an expert on macros, but would this solve your problem:
(defmacro to-str [expr] (str expr))

Dynamic method calls in a Clojure macro?

I'm attempting to write a macro which will call java setter methods based on the arguments given to it.
So, for example:
(my-macro login-as-fred {"Username" "fred" "Password" "wilma"})
might expand to something like the following:
(doto (new MyClass)
(.setUsername "fred")
(.setPassword "wilma"))
How would you recommend tackling this?
Specifically, I'm having trouble working out the best way to construct the setter method name and have it interpreted it as a symbol by the macro.
The nice thing about macros is you don't actually have to dig into the classes or anything like that. You just have to write code that generates the proper s-expressions.
First a function to generate an s-expression like (.setName 42)
(defn make-call [name val]
(list (symbol (str ".set" name) val)))
then a macro to generate the expressions and plug (~#) them into a doto expression.
(defmacro map-set [class things]
`(doto ~class ~#(map make-call things))
Because it's a macro it never has to know what class the thing it's being called on is or even that the class on which it will be used exists.
Please don't construct s-expressions with list for macros. This will seriously hurt the hygiene of the macro. It is very easy to make a mistake, which is hard to track down. Please use always syntax-quote! Although, this is not a problem in this case, it's good to get into the habit of using only syntax-quote!
Depending on the source of your map, you might also consider to use keywords as keys to make it look more clojure-like. Here is my take:
(defmacro configure
[object options]
`(doto ~object
~#(map (fn [[property value]]
(let [property (name property)
setter (str ".set"
(.toUpperCase (subs property 0 1))
(subs property 1))]
`(~(symbol setter) ~value)))
options)))
This can then be used as:
user=> (macroexpand-1 '(configure (MyClass.) {:username "fred" :password "wilma"}))
(clojure.core/doto (MyClass.) (.setUsername "fred") (.setPassword "wilma"))
Someone (I believe Arthur Ulfeldt) had an answer posted that was almost correct, but it's been deleted now.
This is a working version:
(defmacro set-all [obj m]
`(doto ~obj ~#(map (fn [[k v]]
(list (symbol (str ".set" k)) v))
m)))
user> (macroexpand-1 '(set-all (java.util.Date.) {"Month" 0 "Date" 1 "Year" 2009}))
(clojure.core/doto (java.util.Date.) (.setMonth 0) (.setDate 1) (.setYear 2009))
user> (set-all (java.util.Date.) {"Month" 0 "Date" 1 "Year" 2009})
#<Date Fri Jan 01 14:15:51 PST 3909>
You have to bite the bullet and use clojure.lang.Reflector/invokeInstanceMethod like this:
(defn do-stuff [obj m]
(doseq [[k v] m]
(let [method-name (str "set" k)]
(clojure.lang.Reflector/invokeInstanceMethod
obj
method-name
(into-array Object [v]))))
obj)
(do-stuff (java.util.Date.) {"Month" 2}) ; use it
No need for a macro (as far as I know, a macro would not allow to circumvent reflection, either; at least for the general case).