> I agree and I see that my example doesn't demonstrate what it should
> have demonstrated because `bar' is not executed before `foo' is used
> as a macro. The example should have been more like the following:
>
> (define-syntax foo
> (lambda (stx)
> (with-ellipsis e
> (syntax-case (third-party-macro-transformer-helper-macro stx) ()
> ---))))
>
> Here, the helper macro may expand into another instance of
> syntax-case. That instance should not recognize `e' as the ellipsis
> but whatever the ellipsis was where the helper macro was defined.
Agreed, and that's what happens in Guile. In order for an identifier to
be considered an ellipsis, its wrap must include a substitution from #{
$sc-ellipsis }# to the gensym corresponding to the ellipsis binding
introduced by 'with-ellipsis'. That wrap will only be applied to
identifiers that are lexically visible within the 'with-ellipsis' form.
So, if an ellipsis is introduced in one of the operands passed to the
helper macro (and lexically visible within the 'with-ellipsis' form
above), then it _will_ be considered an ellipsis. However, if an
identifier with the same name is found anywhere else, including in the
definition of the helper macro, it will *not* be considered an ellipsis,
because those identifiers will not have the needed substitutions applied
in their wraps.
> Let's run the following example:
>
> (eval-when (expand)
> (define-syntax bar
> (syntax-rules ()
> ((_ stx)
> (syntax-case stx ()
> ((_ a (... ...))
> #'#t)
> ((_ a b c)
> #'#f))))))
>
> (define-syntax foo
> (lambda (stx)
> (with-ellipsis e (bar stx))))
>
> (display (foo 1 2 3))
> (newline)
[Note: I fixed the indentation in the definition of 'bar' above, which
was misleading as it appeared in your email.]
> This one displays `#t' in Guile, which is exactly what we want. I
> guess the reason is that the macro invocation `(bar stx)' creates a
> new transformer environment, in which `{# $sc-ellipsis #}' becomes
> unbound again.
No, this is not quite right. When the transformer code of 'foo' is
expanded, 'bar' expands into a 'syntax-case' form, and that
'syntax-case' form is indeed expanded within a transformer environment
that includes the ellipsis binding introduced by the 'with-ellipsis'
form in 'foo'.
However, all of the bindings in the transformer environment bind
*gensyms*. These gensyms are effectively inaccessible unless the wrap
includes a substitution that maps user-visible identifiers into those
gensyms.
So I should view the transformer environment as a store, shouldn't I? During the course of expansion, the transformer environment is monotonically growing, but this doesn't matter because there can be no name clashes.
In general, that's how Psyntax implements lexical binding. When a core
binding form is encountered, a fresh gensym is bound in the transformer
environment, and that new environment is used to expand all forms
within, including the results of expanding macros within, which in
general include identifiers that originally appeared in macro
definitions elsewhere that are not in the lexical scope of those
bindings.
The reason this works is because when a core binding form is encountered
by the expander, the fresh gensym is substituted for all free references
of the user-visible identifier in the body, *before* expanding the
macros found within. The substitution is deferred using the 'wrap'
mechanism, but the result is the same. Any identifiers not visible in
the body at that time are not affected by that subtitution.
Ellipsis identifiers are a bit more tricky, because unlike other
bindings, the user-visible ellipsis identifiers are not actually
substituted. We can't do that because ellipsis identifiers can be used
for other purposes, e.g. bound to ordinary variables or macros, and
these two ways of binding ellipsis identifiers should not shadow each
other.
Is this universally true? Maybe I misunderstood what you mean about shadowing. How about the following?
(use-modules (guile))
(define-syntax ... (syntax-rules ()))
(define-syntax bar
(syntax-rules ()
((_ ...) ...)))
At least by the R7RS, this shouldn't yield an error due to a misplaced ellipsis.
And what about:
(with-ellipsis e
(define-syntax e (syntax-rules ()))
(define-syntax bar
(syntax-rules ()
---)))
Is `e' recognized as the ellipsis in `---'? If not, is `...' recognized?
So, the approach I came up with to bind ellipsis identifiers in Psyntax
is to add a special pseudo-substitution to the wrap that allows us to
look up the gensym corresponding to the ellipsis binding that should be
in effect for identifiers with that wrap.
The effect is essentially the same. Only identifiers wrapped with that
special pseudo-substitution will effectively be in the lexical scope of
the corresponding 'with-ellipsis' binding.
As with other the core lexical binding forms, the only identifiers that
will be "in scope" are the ones that have this special
pseudo-substitution applied to their wrap.
Does that make sense?
I think so and it also makes sense with respect to the two examples below. Is this special pseudo-substitution used by any other core form besides `with-ellipsis'?
> Now, why does the following work (i.e. why does it print `#t')?
>
> (eval-when (expand)
> (define-syntax bar2
> (syntax-rules ()
> ((_ e body)
> (with-ellipsis e body)))))
>
> (define-syntax foo2
> (lambda (stx)
> (bar2 f (syntax-case stx ()
> ((_ a ...)
> #'#t)
> ((_ a b c)
> #'#f)))))
>
> (display (foo2 1 2 3))
> (newline)
I think this should print #f, and that's what happens on my machine with
Guile 2.2.3. In this example, 'bar2' is essentially an alias for
'with-ellipsis', and should behave the same way.
I tested several variation of the above example and probably managed to confound the results. :-/ Here are hopefully the correct results (Guile 2.2.4 as shipped with Ubuntu 18.10):
So this one indeed outputs #f, thus reproducing your result.
(eval-when (expand)
(define-syntax bar2
(syntax-rules ()
((_ e body)
(with-ellipsis e body)))))
(define-syntax foo2
(lambda (stx)
(bar2 e (syntax-case stx ()
((_a ...)
#'#t)
((_ a b c)
#'#f)))))
(display (foo2 1 2 3))
(newline)
On the other hand, this one prints #t.
(eval-when (expand)
(define-syntax bar2
(syntax-rules ()
((_ e body)
(with-ellipsis f body))))) ; THE DIFFERENCE IS HERE.
(define-syntax foo2
(lambda (stx)
(bar2 e (syntax-case stx ()
((_a ...)
#'#t)
((_ a b c)
#'#f)))))
(display (foo2 1 2 3))
(newline)
[I hope the TABs inserted by Emacs are displayed correctly by your email program.)
I think this behavior of your algorithm and the `with-ellipsis' form is optimal as it allows to nested macro expansions to have their private ellipsis identifiers while it also allows to write wrapper macros that behave like `with-ellipsis'.
> > In Chez Scheme, I would have used `define-property' to define my
> > custom property directly on the identifier standing for the pattern
> > variable. I haven't found an equivalent feature in Guile. I don't know
> > how to nicely code my-syntax-case/my-syntax in standard R6RS.
>
> Sure, that sounds like a nice feature. I'll add it to my TODO list :)
>
> That would be great! :-)
I'll probably raise the priority of this TODO item, since I'd prefer to
enable you to avoid using 'syntax-local-binding' if possible.
How would you implement this? In Chez Scheme properties are keyed to identifiers (which is great because it works well with macros and hygiene). Would you add a field P to each identifier X that could be initialized with the result of `(make-object-property)'? And would `(define-property ID X EXPR)' execute something like `(set! (P (label-of ID)) expr)'?
Have nice weekend,
Marc