bubble-operator-upwards

An utility function in Quicklisp.

Project author Jean-Philippe Paradis
Project type Library
Programming language Common Lisp
Status Ready-to-use
License Public Domain
Library type Utility function
Project complexity Trivial
Latest release Version 1.0
Date 4 nov 2012
Quicklisp
(Nov 2012 dist and later) 		Status Available
Version Latest
Depends on Depended on by
Directly Nothing Nothing
Indirectly Nothing Nothing

bubble-operator-upwards is a function that "bubbles an operator upwards" in a form, demultiplexing all alternative branches by way of cartesian product. This operation is notably useful for easy implementation of certain kinds of shorthand notations in macros. A cartesian-product function is also exported, as it's needed to implement the main function.

⚓Examples

(bubble-operator-upwards 'and '(plate (and ham eggs) beans))
=>
(AND (PLATE HAM BEANS)
     (PLATE EGGS BEANS))
(bubble-operator-upwards 'alt '(section (alt 1 2 3) - (alt "a" "b"))
            :result-kind :branches)
=>
((SECTION 1 - "a") (SECTION 1 - "b")
 (SECTION 2 - "a") (SECTION 2 - "b")
 (SECTION 3 - "a") (SECTION 3 - "b"))
(bubble-operator-upwards 'or '(>> (or ul ol)
                                  (or (:class (or "important" "urgent"))
                                      (id "first-priority"))))
=>
(OR (>> UL (:CLASS "important"))
    (>> UL (:CLASS "urgent"))
    (>> UL (ID "first-priority"))
    (>> OL (:CLASS "important"))
    (>> OL (:CLASS "urgent"))
    (>> OL (ID "first-priority")))

⚓API

First of all, in the way of packages there's the bubble-operator-upwards package, which is also nicknamed bubble-op-up. It exports the functions bubble-operator-upwards and cartesian-product. Explicitly (:import-from) only those you need or explicitly package-qualify the symbols. Don't (:use)!

Function bubble-operator-upwards operator form
  &key (result-kind :abridged)
       (if-collapsed nil)
       (collapsed-identity (ecase result-kind
                             ((:full :abridged)
                              (list operator))
                             (:branches nil)))
  => result

Bubbles operator upwards in form, demultiplexing all alternative branches by way of cartesian product. Hard to describe formally, but the examples above should give some inspiration for the basic effect, and some experimentation in the REPL is recommended.

result-kind is one of :branches, :full or :abridged

  • :branches simply returns the demultiplexed branches.

  • :full returns the same result as :branches would, except wrapped in a cons whose CAR is operator.

  • :abridged returns the same result as :full would, except if there's only one branch, only that branch is returned, without the wrapping.

if-collapsed and collapsed-identity determine what to do if the number of branches "collapses" to zero. if-collapsed is :error or nil. If it's nil and the result is indeed collapsed, then the value of collapsed-identity will be returned.

Function cartesian-product &rest possibility-groups
  => cartesian-product

Returns the cartesian-product of all possible combinations from possibility-groups, as a list. This function is inherently needed to implement bubble-operator-upwards, so might as well export it...

(cartesian-product '(1 2) '(a b c))
=>
((1 A) (1 B) (1 C)
 (2 A) (2 B) (2 C))