How to access compile time cljs var metadata from a clj macro? - clojure

I'd like to construct a ClojureScript macro (executed/compiled via Clojure) that informs it's construction of a return form based on the static, compile-time metadata of a ClojureScript var argument.
I understand it is possible to access compile-time, static var metadata from ClojureScript code (using (meta (var varsym)); see this post). But is this data accessible to the compilation process in such a way that we could access it from a macro?
Here's a rough sketch of what I'd like to do (and the question is really how you'd write get-meta-for-varsym below):
;; executed/compiled in clj, targeting cljs
(defmacro themacro
[varsym & args]
(let [var-meta (get-meta-for-varsym varsym)
return-form (compile-return-form-from-metadata var-meta args)]
return-form))

For this you have to use the Clojurescript analyzer:
(ns your-macros
(:require [cljs.analyzer :as cljs]))
(defmacro var-data
[sym]
(cljs/resolve-var &env sym))
Then in your clojurescript file:
(ns your-cljs)
(def ^{:foo :bar} xxy {})
(var-data xxy)
The meta data will be in :meta key of the map.

Related

How to set a dynamic var before aot compile

I want to have a *flag* variable in a given namespace that is set to true only when :aot compiling.
Is there a way to do that?
Your issue is kind of complicated because the definition of Clojure's own dynamic nature, so there's no rough equivalent of C's #ifdef or some other mechanism that happens at compile time, but here's a workaround:
I created a Leiningen project with lein new app flagdemo. This trick detects when AOT is performed, as #Biped Phill mentioned above, using the dynamic var *compile-files*, and saves a resource in the classpath of the compiled code:
The code looks like this:
(ns flagdemo.core
(:gen-class))
(def flag-path "target/uberjar/classes/flag.edn")
(defn write-flag [val]
(try (spit flag-path (str val)) (catch Exception _)))
(defn read-flag []
(some-> (clojure.java.io/resource "flag.edn") slurp clojure.edn/read-string))
(write-flag false)
(when clojure.core/*compile-files*
(write-flag true))
(defn -main
[& args]
(println "Flag is" (read-flag)))
So, when the file loads using, say, lein run or when you load it in the REPL, it will try to write an EDN file with the value false.
When you compile the package using lein uberjar, it loads the namespace and finds that *compile-files* is defined, thus it saves an EDN file that is packaged with the JAR as a resource.
The function read-flag just tries to load the EDN file from the classpath.
It works like this:
$ lein clean
$ lein run
Flag is nil
$ lein uberjar
Compiling flagdemo.core
Created /tmp/flagdemo/target/uberjar/flagdemo-0.1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
Created /tmp/flagdemo/target/uberjar/flagdemo-0.1.0-SNAPSHOT-standalone.jar
$ java -jar target/uberjar/flagdemo-0.1.0-SNAPSHOT-standalone.jar
Flag is true
Credit to #Biped Phill and #Denis Fuenzalida for explaining it to me.
I think this works as well:
(def ^:dynamic *static* false)
(when (and *compile-files* boot/*static-flag*)
(alter-var-root #'*static* true))
then in profiles.clj:
:injections [(require 'boot)
(intern 'boot '*static-flag* true)]
First you need to indicate that a variable will change over time:
(def ^:dynamic *the-answer* nil)
*the-answer*
;=> nil
The ^:dynamic bit will allow that variable to be rebound later:
(binding [*the-answer* 42] *the-answer*)
;=> 42
ADDENDUM 1
Here's what would happen if you didn't use ^:dynamic:
(def *the-answer* nil)
(binding [*the-answer* 42] *the-answer*)
;=> [...] Can't dynamically bind non-dynamic var [...]
ADDENDUM 2
These kind of variables are commonly referred to as "earmuffs". The naming convention is unenforced but strongly encouraged.
Here's what happen in the REPL when you use this naming without declaring a dynamic variable:
(def *the-answer* nil)
; Warning: *the-answer* not declared dynamic and thus is not dynamically rebindable, but its name suggests otherwise. Please either indicate ^:dynamic *the-answer* or change the name. (/tmp/form-init7760459636905875407.clj:1)

Why ns aliasing inside NON-global scope (let, def) is not working?

Trying to alias ns inside let to be able to use it locally, but got an error CompilerException java.lang.RuntimeException: No such namespace: sss when just trying to use alias
(ns core
(:require [clojure.set]
[clojure.string])
)
(let []
(alias 'sss 'clojure.string)
(println (ns-aliases *ns*) "hi1")
(println (sss/capitalize "hONdURas"))
;(println (clojure.string/capitalize "hONdURas")) ;;this works
(ns-unalias *ns* 'sss)
(+ 1 2)
)
(println (ns-aliases *ns*))
https://repl.it/repls/NoxiousRubberyComputationallinguistics
(alias ...) doesn't have to be top level. The way clojure works is that there is something called the reader that takes text data and turns it into data structures that are inputs to the compiler. See
https://clojure.org/reference/reader
Any namespaces referred to in the code have to already be defined for the reader prior to use. (Similarly for functions).
So, in
(let []
(alias 'sss 'clojure.string)
(println (sss/capitalize "aaa")))
the alias hasn't been assigned when the reader is trying to turn
(sss/capitalize)
into data.

How can you mock macros in clojure for tests?

I'd like to mock out a macro in a namespace.
For instance, clojure.tools.logging/error.
I tried with-redefs with no luck
(def logged false)
(defmacro testerror
{:arglists '([message & more] [throwable message & more])}
[& args]
`(def logged true))
(deftest foo
...
(with-redefs
[log/error testerror]
...
That gave this error:
CompilerException java.lang.RuntimeException: Can't take value of a macro
Amalloy provided you the answer for your direct question on how to mock a macro - you cannot.
However, you can solve your problem with other solutions (simpler than moving your whole application to component dependency injection). Let me suggest two alternative implementations (unfortunately, not very straightforward but still simpler than using component).
Mock the function called by logging macro
You cannot mock a macro but you can mock a function that will be used when the logging macro get expanded.
(require '[clojure.tools.logging :as log])
(require '[clojure.pprint :refer [pprint]])
(pprint (macroexpand `(log/error (Exception. "Boom") "There was a failure")))
Gives:
(let*
[logger__739__auto__
(clojure.tools.logging.impl/get-logger
clojure.tools.logging/*logger-factory*
#object[clojure.lang.Namespace 0x2c50fafc "boot.user"])]
(if
(clojure.tools.logging.impl/enabled? logger__739__auto__ :error)
(clojure.core/let
[x__740__auto__ (java.lang.Exception. "Boom")]
(if
(clojure.core/instance? java.lang.Throwable x__740__auto__)
(clojure.tools.logging/log*
logger__739__auto__
:error
x__740__auto__
(clojure.core/print-str "There was a failure"))
(clojure.tools.logging/log*
logger__739__auto__
:error
nil
(clojure.core/print-str x__740__auto__ "There was a failure"))))))
As you can see, the function that does actual logging (if a given level is enabled) is done with clojure.tools.logging/log* function.
We can mock it and write our test:
(require '[clojure.test :refer :all])
(def log-messages (atom []))
(defn log*-mock [logger level throwable message]
(swap! log-messages conj {:logger logger :level level :throwable throwable :message message}))
(with-redefs [clojure.tools.logging/log* log*-mock]
(let [ex (Exception. "Boom")]
(log/error ex "There was a failure")
(let [logged (first #log-messages)]
(is (= :error (:level logged)))
(is (= "There was a failure!" (:message logged)))
(is (= ex (:throwable logged))))))
Use your logging library API to collect and inspect log messages
Your logging library API might provide features that would allow you to plug into in your test to collect and assert logging events. For example with java.util.logging you can write your own implementation of Handler that would collect all logged log records and add it to a specific (or root) logger.
You cannot do this. The point of macros is that they are expanded when the code is compiled, and after that they are gone. The original code that included a call to the macro is unrecoverable. You cannot retroactively redefine a macro at runtime: you're too late already.
An alternative approach, if you want to have swappable logging implementations, would be to use something like Component for dependency injection, and use a different logging component depending on whether you are running tests or running your real program. Arguably that's a bit heavy-handed, and maybe there is a simpler approach, but I don't know it.

Can reader tags be used with ClojureScript

In Clojure, adding custom reader tags is really simple
;; data_readers.clj (on classpath, eg. src/clj/)
{rd/qux datareaders.reader/my-reader}
;; Define a namespace containing the my-reader var:
(ns datareaders.reader)
(defn my-reader [x] 'y)
;; use special tag in other namespace. Readers have to be required first.
(require 'datareaders.reader)
(defn foo [x y]
(println #rd/qux x "prints y, not x due to reader tag."))
I am trying to achieve the same thing for ClojureScript but am getting an error that #rd/qux is not defined. I am using lein cljsbuild once to build the project. Is that a limitation of ClojureScript or is it that cljsbuild builds the project before the readers have been resolved? In that case, how can I force leiningen to load the readers namespace before cljsbuild is started?
EDIT: Note that this example intends to use reader tags within ClojureScript source code and not when reading auxilliary data via read-string.
This currently isn't possible, but will be as soon as #CLJS-1194 and #CLJS-1277 are fixed. Hopefully that will happen very soon.
If you wanted to do it, just rename data_readers.clj to data_readers.cljc and use conditional readers.
As an aside, what's your use case for this?
Both #CLJS-1194 and #CLJS-1277 are fixed, so this should work as expected.
The mechanism to add a custom reader tag in cljs is different. You have to call register-tag-parser! which takes a tag and a fn.
From the cljs reader tests:
(testing "Testing tag parsers"
(reader/register-tag-parser! 'foo identity)
(is (= [1 2] (reader/read-string "#foo [1 2]")))
Your example would be:
(cljs.reader/register-tag-parser! 'rd/qux (fn [x] 'y))
(defn foo [x y]
(println #rd/qux x "prints y, not x due to reader tag."))

Clojure - how to let the library users choose which printing function to use, to display data structures?

I'm writing a small debugging library and I would like to let users choose how to display data structures. I was imagining that users could require it in this kind of way:
(ns some-user-namespace
(:require
[clojure.pprint]
[my.library :with-args {print-fn clojure.pprint/pprint}]))
Is something like this possible, and if not, how can I solve this problem?
It's not possible to do it this way. If you really to offer this kind of setup, you could provide a configuration function to be called by the user after the import:
(ns some-namespace
(:require [my.library]))
(my.library/print-with! clojure.pprint/pprint)
Ending function name with ! is an idiomatic way of indicating that it's causing some side effects.
In your library it could look like:
(ns my.library)
(def config (atom {:printer println}))
(defn print-with! [new-printer]
(swap! config assoc :printer new-printer))
(defn my-lib-print [foo]
((:printer #config) foo))
EDIT: For a solution that does not require global, mutable state you can use dynamic bindings.
Lib:
(ns my.library)
(def ^:dynamic *printer* println)
(defn my-lib-print [foo]
(*printer* foo))
Usage:
(binding [my.library/*printer* clojure.pprint/pprint]
(my.library/my-lib-print {:hello "World"}))
These are the only two ways for some kind of external, contextual configuration I can think of. The only alternative is pure higher order function:
(defn my-lib-print [printer foo]
(printer foo))