[racket] top-level-rename

2014-08-11 7:44 GMT+02:00 Matthew Flatt <mflatt at cs.utah.edu>:
> At Sun, 10 Aug 2014 17:01:01 +0200, Jens Axel Søgaard wrote:
...
>> The next part of the syntax object is:
>
> Answers below, but first a big caution: While these details have been
> the same for a while, I hope and expect the representation of syntax
> objects to change in the coming months. I have been threatening to
> rewrite the macro expander (yes, in Racket) for a while, but things are
> lining up so that I can actually start trying soon.

That is great news. That will make it easier make a version of Whalesong
that can run in the browser.

>>      #s((phase-shift wrap 0 zo 0) 0 #f #f #f))
>>
>> The form of a phase-shift is
>>     (phase-shift amt src dest cancel-id)
>> where
>>   amt is #f or an integer,
>>   src and dest are module-path-index?
>>   cancel-id is #f or an integer
>>
>> The documentation on phase-shift is rather brief.
>>
>> 1) Is it correct that a shift of #f means that only bindings at phase level 0
>>     are shifted to the label phase level?
>
> I'm afraid I could only look for the answer in the same place in the
> implementation where you must have found the "phase shift to #f shifts
> only phase-0 bindings" comment. So, yes.
>
>
>> 2) Even though src and dest are documented to be module-path-indices
>>     the example show that #f is a valid value too.
>>     Is it safe to assume that the combination #f #f means toplevel and
>> "self-module" ?
>>     Or do #f  mean "use the same value as before" ?
>
> I believe it means "use the same value as before".
>
>
>> 3) The example shows a phase-shift of 0. At first I didn't get what
>> the purpose of this.
>>     Then I found a comment in add_renames_unless_module :
>>
>>     /* this "phase shift" just attaches the namespace's module registry: */
>>     form = scheme_stx_phase_shift(form, NULL, NULL, NULL,
>>
>> genv->module_registry->exports, NULL, NULL);
>>
>>     and this comment in scheme_stx_phase_shift :
>>
>>     /* Shifts the phase on a syntax object in a module. A 0 shift might be
>>     used just to re-direct relative module paths. new_midx might be
>>     NULL to shift without redirection. And so on. */
>>
>>     Is this is the explanation behind the zero phase shift?
>
> Yes, that sounds right.

>> 4) What is the cancel-id? used for ?
>
> It's for yet another job of "phase shift" entries: to indicate the
> boundaries between information for a submodule context and information
> for the enclosing module's context.

I better begin reading "phase shift" as "context shift" ;-)

> Roughly, a cancel ID causes a later module context to be ignored for
> the purposes of determining an identifier's context. The value of the
> cancel-ID field is matched against an identity field of each
> module-rename record.
>
> You could see get_old_module_env() for more, but I have trouble
> understanding and trusting this piece myself. I think it's a hack that
> has worked just well enough... except for Typed Racket, where submodule
> expansion doesn't work right, probably due to this part.

Thanks for the explanation. It makes more sense now.

/Jens Axel