[plt-scheme] dynamically varying the definitions used by a procedure

From: David J. Neu (djneu at att.net)
Date: Wed Sep 29 19:31:14 EDT 2004

Hello all,

I have an application in which I'd like to be able to run a procedure,
(in the example below, the execute procedure) and to have the
variables, procedures, etc. that are used by the procedure vary - with
different definitions of the variables, procedures, etc. being loaded
from disk.

I was wondering if someone could let me know if there is a better way
to handle the following situation, than the way I'm doing it in the
following toy example?

The example contains three files: test.ss, euclidean.ss and hamming.ss.

Many thanks!
--David

;; *** start: test.ss ****
(define dbms
  '((euclidean . "euclidean.ss")
    (hamming . "hamming.ss")))

(define execute
  (lambda (arequest)
    (let ((lfilename (assq arequest dbms)))
      (if lfilename
          (begin
            (load (cdr lfilename))
            (printf "~a~n" (f x y)))
          (error (format "request ~a not found~n" arequest))))))

(execute 'euclidean)
(execute 'hamming)
;; *** end: test.ss ****

;; *** start: euclidean.ss ****
(define x '(2 5 7))

(define y '(1 0 2))

(define square
  (lambda (ax)
    (* ax ax)))

(define f
  (lambda (ax ay)
    (sqrt
     (+ (square (- (car ax)  (car ay)))
        (square (- (cadr ax)  (cadr ay)))
        (square (- (caddr ax)  (caddr ay)))))))
;; *** end: euclidean.ss ****

;; *** start: hamming.ss ****
(define x '(1 0 0))

(define y '(1 0 1))

(define hamming
  (lambda (ax ay)
    (+  (- (car ax)  (car ay)))
    (- (cadr ax)  (cadr ay))
    (- (caddr ax)  (caddr ay))))
;; *** end: hamming.ss ****


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