[plt-scheme] matching/dispatching a la Erlang

From: William Sprague (wwsprague at ucdavis.edu)
Date: Thu Aug 28 00:57:59 EDT 2003

Hi Schemers,

I would like to branch based on unification, like Erlang, so I can get a
"case" form on steroids, which would bind free variables and match
structure and constants, ("destructuring"?).  I was wondering if I should
be using match.ss to do this.  If so, could someone point me to a simpler
example than an implementation of the Y-operator?  (The Y-operator.  Wow. 
It's kind of funny.)

I want to be able to do something like the following, where
"case-on-steroids" is my desired operator:

(define (choose input)
  (case-on-steroids (X Y)       ; define X and Y as free variables
    ((X X Y) (+ X Y))           ; matches (input 1 1 2), bind X->1, Y->2
    ((1 X (2 Y) X) (* X Y))     ; matches (input 1 100 '(2 300) 100)
                                ; X->100, Y->300
    (_ 'whatever))))            ; matches anything no bindings

My model for this is the pattern matching way of defining procedures in
Erlang, which, in turn, is derived from Prolog.  

It looks like define-syntax has pattern matching like I want, and having
fenders would be great too, but I want to use the facility as a glorified
case statement.

Any pointers would be much appreciated.  If match.ss can do this, I
apologize for giving up on the documentation.  

Thanks in advance,
Webb Sprague
Programmer III
Wildlife Fish Conservation Biology 
University of California at Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616



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