I am reading SICP which uses Scheme dialect of lisp. My question is why is there a need for sequence to expression conversion function as defined below which is used in conditional definitions but isn't used in the if expressions?
(define (sequence->exp seq)
(cond ((null? seq) seq)
((last-exp? seq) (first-exp seq))
(else (make-begin seq))))
(define (make-begin seq) (cons 'begin seq))
Following is the definition of if expression which doesn't require sequence to expression conversion:
(define (if? exp) (tagged-list? exp 'if))
(define (if-predicate exp) (cadr exp))
(define (if-consequent exp) (caddr exp))
(define (if-alternative exp)
(if (not (null? (cdddr exp)))
(cadddr exp)
'false))
(define (eval-if exp env)
(if (true? (eval (if-predicate exp) env))
(eval (if-consequent exp) env)
(eval (if-alternative exp) env)))
Following is the definition of conditional whose predicate does require sequence to expression conversion.
(define (cond? exp) (tagged-list? exp 'cond))
(define (cond-clauses exp) (cdr exp))
(define (cond-else-clause? clause)
(eq? (cond-predicate clause) 'else))
(define (cond-predicate clause) (car clause))
(define (cond-actions clause) (cdr clause))
(define (cond->if exp) (expand-clauses (cond-clauses exp)))
(define (expand-clauses clauses)
(if (null? clauses)
'false ; no else clause
(let ((first (car clauses))
(rest (cdr clauses)))
(if (cond-else-clause? first)
(if (null? rest)
(sequence->exp (cond-actions first))
(error "ELSE clause isn't last: COND->IF"
clauses))
(make-if (cond-predicate first)
(sequence->exp (cond-actions first))
(expand-clauses rest))))))
An if expression can only evaluate either one consequent expression, or one alternate expression. But a cond expression evaluates a sequence of expressions associated with the conditional clause that is true. The sequence->exp procedure is needed to convert a sequence of expressions into a single expression. By wrapping the sequence in a begin form, a single expression is created which can be evaluated as a consequent or alternate expression in an if expression.
The purpose of the sequence->exp calls in the posted code is to facilitate the conversion of cond expressions to if expressions; consequently, any sequence of expressions found in a cond branch must be converted to a single expression in a newly minted if expression.
Related
I'm working through a textbook on programming languages, and one of the exercises was to make a function in Scheme that flips tuples in a list. Here's my code:
; invert : Listof(List(Int,Int)) -> Listof(List(Int,int))
; usage: (invert '((a 1) (a 2) (1 b) (2 b))) -> ((1 a) (2 a) (b 1) (b 2))
(define invert
(lambda (lst)
(if (null? lst)
'()
(cons
(flip (car lst))
(invert (cdr lst))))))
; flip : List(Int,Int) -> List(Int,int)
; usage: (flip '(a 1)) -> (1 a)
(define flip
(lambda (tuple)
(if (not (eqv? (length (tuple)) 2))
(eopl:error 'flip
"Tuple is not length 2~%")
(cons (cdr tuple) (car tuple)))))
I tried testing my program in chez-scheme. When I use the test case in the usage comment, I get this error: Exception: attempt to apply non-procedure (a 1). I've never worked with Scheme before, so I'd greatly appreciate any help and advice. Thanks!
You have a coupe of errors in flip, this should fix them:
(define flip
(lambda (tuple)
(if (not (= (length tuple) 2))
(eopl:error 'flip "Tuple is not length 2~%")
(list (cadr tuple) (car tuple)))))
In particular:
The specific error reported was because of this expression: (tuple). We must not surround variables with (), unless they're procedures that we intend to call.
We should use = for comparing numbers, not eqv?.
In this expression: (cons (cdr tuple) (car tuple)) there are two issues, for building a list of two elements we use list, not cons. And for accessing the second element we use cadr, not cdr - you should read a bit about how cons, car and cdr are used for building lists.
Notice that there's a simpler way to solve this problem if we use map; I'll skip error checking for simplicity:
(define (invert lst)
(map (lambda (tuple) (list (cadr tuple) (car tuple)))
lst))
I'm trying to implement quicksort in CLisp, and so far I'm able to partition the list around a pivot. However, when I try to combine and recursively sort the sublists, I get either a stack overflow or an error with let, and I'm not sure what's going wrong. Here's my code:
(defun pivot (n xs)
(list (getLesser n xs) (getGreater n xs))
)
(defun getLesser (m l)
(cond
((null l) nil)
((<= m (car l)) (getLesser m (cdr l)))
(t (cons (car l) (getLesser m (cdr l)))))
)
(defun getGreater (m l)
(cond
((null l) nil)
((> m (car l)) (getGreater m (cdr l)))
(t (cons (car l) (getGreater m (cdr l)))))
)
(defun quicksort (xs)
(cond
((null xs) nil)
(t
(let (partition (pivot (car xs) xs))
(cond
((null (car partition)) (cons (quicksort (cdr partition)) nil))
((null (cdr partition)) (cons (quicksort (car partition)) nil))
(t (append (quicksort (car partition)) (quicksort (cdr partition)))))))))
My idea was to have a local variable partition that is a list of 2 lists, where car partition is the list of number less than the pivot, and cdr partition is the list of numbers greater than the pivot. Then, in the final cond construct, if there were no numbers less than the pivot I would recursively sort the 2nd list; if there were no numbers greater than the pivot I would sort the 1st list; else I would recursively sort both and append them in order. Can anyone help me out?
Compiling the file gives you hints about wrong syntax.
GNU CLISP produces these diagnostics:
$ clisp -q -c foo.lisp
;; Compiling file /tmp/foo.lisp ...
WARNING: in QUICKSORT in lines 20..28 : Illegal syntax in LET/LET*: (PIVOT (CAR XS) XS)
Ignore the error and proceed
;; Deleted file /tmp/foo.fas
There were errors in the following functions:
QUICKSORT
1 error, 1 warning
SBCL produces similar diagnostics:
$ sbcl --eval '(compile-file "foo.lisp")' --quit
This is SBCL 1.3.1.debian, an implementation of ANSI Common Lisp.
More information about SBCL is available at <http://www.sbcl.org/>.
SBCL is free software, provided as is, with absolutely no warranty.
It is mostly in the public domain; some portions are provided under
BSD-style licenses. See the CREDITS and COPYING files in the
distribution for more information.
; compiling file "/tmp/foo.lisp" (written 08 MAY 2019 08:58:54 PM):
; compiling (DEFUN PIVOT ...)
; compiling (DEFUN GETLESSER ...)
; compiling (DEFUN GETGREATER ...)
; compiling (DEFUN QUICKSORT ...)
; file: /tmp/foo.lisp
; in: DEFUN QUICKSORT
; (LET (PARTITION (PIVOT (CAR XS) XS))
; (COND ((NULL (CAR PARTITION)) (CONS (QUICKSORT #) NIL))
; ((NULL (CDR PARTITION)) (CONS (QUICKSORT #) NIL))
; (T (APPEND (QUICKSORT #) (QUICKSORT #)))))
;
; caught ERROR:
; The LET binding spec (PIVOT (CAR XS) XS) is malformed.
;
; compilation unit finished
; caught 1 ERROR condition
; /tmp/foo.fasl written
; compilation finished in 0:00:00.021
You can then look up the expected syntax in CLHS: http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/speope_letcm_letst.html
The syntax for LET is (LET BINDINGS . BODY), where BINDINGS is a list of bindings; each binding is a (SYMBOL VALUE) list. Alternatively, a binding can just be SYMBOL, which stands for (SYMBOL NIL). Your code is:
(let (partition (pivot (car xs) xs))
...)
Let's write one binding per line and normalize all bindings as a proper list:
(let ((partition nil)
(pivot (car xs) xs)))
...)
You can see that the code:
binds partition to NIL
has a malformed second binding: there are three elements, namely pivot, (car xs) and xs, which does not match the expected (SYMBOL VALUE) syntax.
(defun lat
(lambda (l)
(cond ((null l) t)
((atom (car l))(lat (cdr l))
(t nil))))
The function takes a list as an argument. It is a recursive function that checks every element in the list. Whether it is atom or not. If every element is an atom, then it returns true else false.
Following is the error displayed
While compiling LAT :
Bad lambda list : (LAMBDA (L)
(COND ((NULL L) T) ((ATOM # #)) (T NIL)))
[Condition of type CCL::COMPILE-TIME-PROGRAM-ERROR]
Just like Hal Abelson called Scheme "lisp" in the SICP videos this book does the same, however the language in the book is a predecessor to Scheme and not Common Lisp. When you see:
(define name
(lambda (arg ...)
body ...)
This is the same as this in CL:
(defun name (arg ...)
body ...)
The reason is that in Scheme it's the same namespace for operator as well as operand bindings. A lisp-2 like Common Lisp can split it up like this:
(setf (fdefinition 'name)
(lambda (arg ...)
body ...))
This probably won't happen since you can always use defun, but in the event you return a function from a function you can do this or you must rely on funcall or apply to use the returned value:
;; This is a function that creates a function
(defun get-counter (from step)
(lambda ()
(let ((tmp from))
(incf from step)
tmp)))
When using this you might want to bind it globally:
(setf (fdefinition 'evens) (get-counter 0 2))
(evens) ; ==> 0
(evens) ; ==> 2
Or in functions you get it bound to normal variables and need to funcall or apply:
(defparameter *odds* (get-counter 1 2))
(funcall *odds*)
; ==> 1
Which one do you prefer?
(list (funcall *odds*) (evens))
; ==> (3 4)
The ? in lat? inidicated predicate and in CL a p in the end does the same. Your function latp is suppose to return nil or t so it should not return a function at all. Thus:
(defun latp (list)
(cond ((null list) t)
((atom (car list)) (latp (cdr list)))
(t nil)))
This of course is the same as:
(defun latp (list)
(or (null list)
(and (atom (car list))
(latp (cdr list)))))
Unlike Scheme using the name list as the argument does not affect the function call to list.
I am trying to find the position of an atom in the list.
Expected results:
(position-in-list 'a '(a b c d e)) gives 0
(position-in-list 'b '(a b c d e)) gives 1
(position-in-list 'Z '(a b c d e)) gives nil.
I have a function that gives the position correctly when the item is in the list:
(defun position-in-list (letter list)
(cond
((atom list) nil)
((eq (car list) letter) 0)
(t (+ 1 (position-in-list letter (cdr list))))))
The problem is that it doesn't return nil when the item is not present, as if it reaches (atom list) nil it will give this error: *** - 1+: nil is not a number as when it unstacks, it will try to add the values to nil.
Is there a way to adapt this function (keeping the same structure) so that it correctly returns nil when the item is not in the list?
Notes:
I know that there is a position function in the library, but I don't want to use it.
I know my question is similar to this one, but the problem I mention above is not addressed.
* edit *
Thanks to all of you for your answers. Although I don't have the necessary knowledge to understand all the suggestions you mentioned, it was helpful.
I have found another fix to my problem:
(defun position-in-list (letter liste)
(cond
((atom liste) nil)
((equal letter (car liste)) 0)
((position-in-list letter (cdr liste)) (+ 1 (position-in-list letter (cdr liste)))) ) )
One possible solution is to make the recursive function a local function from another function. At the end one would then return from the surrounding function - thus you would not need to return the NIL result from each recursive call.
Local recursive function returns from a function
Local recursive functions can be defined with LABELS.
(defun position-in-list (letter list)
(labels ((position-in-list-aux (letter list)
(cond
((atom list) (return-from position-in-list nil))
((eql (first list) letter) 0)
(t (+ 1 (position-in-list-aux
letter (cdr list)))))))
(position-in-list-aux letter list)))
This RETURN-FROM is possible because the function to return from is visible from the local function.
Recursive function returns to another function
It's also possible to return control to another function using CATCH and THROW:
(defun position-in-list (letter list)
(catch 'position-in-list-catch-tag
(position-in-list-aux letter list)))
(defun position-in-list-aux (letter list)
(cond
((atom list) (throw 'position-in-list-catch-tag nil))
((eql (first list) letter) 0)
(t (+ 1 (position-in-list-aux
letter (cdr list))))))
Test function EQL
Note also that the default test function by convention is EQL, not EQ. This allows also numbers and characters to be used.
You need to check the value returned by the recursive call:
(defun position-in-list (letter list)
(cond
((atom list) nil)
((eq (car list) letter) 0)
(t
(let ((found (position-in-list letter (cdr list))))
(and found
(1+ found))))))
Please note that this implementation is not tail-recursive.
In general, it's useful to provide a :test keyword parameter to pick what equality function we should use, so we do that. It's also handy to give the compiler the ability to tail-call-optimise (note, TCO is not required in Common Lisp, but most compilers will do so with the right optimisation settings, consult your compiler manual), so we use another keyword parameter for that. It also means that whatever we return from the innermost invocation is returned exactly as-is, so it does not matter if we return a number or nil.
(defun position-in-list (element list &key (test #'eql) (position 0))
(cond ((null list) nil)
((funcall test element (car list)) position)
(t (position-in-list element
(cdr list)
:test test :position (1+ position)))))
Of course, it is probably better to wrap the TCO-friendly recursion in an inner function, so we (as Rainer Joswig correctly points out) don't expose internal implementation details.
(defun position-in-list (element list &key (test #'eql)
(labels ((internal (list position)
(cond ((null list) nil)
((eql element (car list)) position)
(t (internal (cdr list) (1+ position))))))
(internals list 0)))
(define-struct pizza (size toppings))
;; Constants for testing
(define (meat item)
(symbol=? 'meat item))
(define (tomatoes item)
(symbol=? 'tomatoes item))
(define (cheese item)
(symbol=? 'cheese item))
(define (pepperoni item)
(symbol=? 'pepperoni item))
(define (hot-peppers item)
(symbol=? 'hot-peppers item))
(define (count-toppings order topping)
(cond [(empty? order) 0]
[else
(local
[(define (single-pizza-tops pizza top)
(length (filter top (pizza-toppings pizza))))
(define (list-of-nums lop tops)
(list (single-pizza-tops (first lop) tops)
(single-pizza-tops (first (rest lop)) tops)
(single-pizza-tops (first (rest (rest lop))) tops)))]
(foldr + 0 (list-of-nums order topping)))]))
Turns out my code works fine with the defined constants, but count-toppings wont work with a symbol for 'topping?
Does anyone know a way to modify my filter function so that if I input a symbol for toppings, this code will work the same way?
Map and filter can be implemented in terms of foldr and cons. Since you aren't building a list you can disregard filter and map. In general though to map recursion to higher-order function you can look at type signatures. The more difficult way is to manually match your code to that of the functions.
Map takes a list, a function or arity one, and returns a list of the function mapped to each element of the list or (a -> b) -> [a] -> [b] in Haskell notaion.
(define (map f L) ;niave implementation pared down for simplicity
(if (null? L)
'()
(cons (f (car L)) (map f (cdr L)))))
Filter takes a predicate of arity one, and a list, and returns a list that safisfies that predicate. or (a -> bool) -> [a] -> [a] in Haskell.
(define (filter pred L) ;dirro
(cond ((null? L) '())
((pred (car L))
(cons (car L)
(filter pred (cdr L))))
(else (filter pred (cdr L)))))
Foldr takes an a function that that has arity two, an accumulator value, and a list and returns the accumulator. or (a -> b -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b in haskell.
(define (foldr kons knil L) ;ditto
(if (null? L)
knil
(kons (car L) (foldr kons knil (cdr L)))))
So the trick of it at first is assuaging the argument from your function to fit. In both your funcitons you have a cond clause [(empty? topping-list) 0], which suggests knil should be 0.
In count-topping's else statement you call +, which at first glance suggests kons should be a +, however your list isn't numbers directly, meaning youll have to wrap in in a lambda statement, or create a helper function. (lambda (x acc) (+ (single-pizza-toppings (pizza-toppings x) atop) acc))
To put it together
(define (count-topping alop atop)
(foldr (lambda (x acc)
(+ (single-pizza-toppings (pizza-toppings x) atop)
acc))
0
alop))
Now the interesting one, single-pizza-toppings will look very similar. Execpt that the lambda statement will contain an if statment that returns 1 if x is a symbol equal to topping and 0 otherwise. Or you can do something even simpler.
(define (single-pizza-toppings topping-list topping)
(foldr (lambda (x acc)
(+ 1 acc))
0
(filter (lammba (x) (symbol=? x topping))
topping-list)))
That filter filter insures every x going to the foldr is a topping so you can just ignore it and add to the accumulator.
Assuming that we have the first, we can define the second by
Count the occurrences of the topping in each pizza using the first function, by way of map
Compute the sum of the resulting list
That is,
(define (count-toppings pizzas topping)
(sum (map (lambda (p) (single-pizza-toppings (pizza-toppings p) topping)) pizzas)))
For the first function, we can use filter to get a list of all occurrences of the given topping.
The number of occurrences is the length of the result:
(define (single-pizza-toppings toppings topping)
(length (filter (lambda (t) (symbol=? t topping)) toppings)))
Both functions consist of a transformation of the input into the data we're interested in, map and filter, followed by a "reduction", sum and length.
This is a very common pattern.
And if you don't have sum:
(define (sum ts)
(foldr (lambda (x acc) (+ x acc)) 0 ts))
Looks like your first step will be to put together a complete set of test cases. If you're using DrRacket, you might want to enable "Syntactic Test Suite Coverage" in the "Choose Language..." menu to make sure you have a good set of tests. That's the first step....