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pygen - Python-style generators library
Created by vbuzuev on: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 05:03:59 GMT, Last modification: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 03:24:29 GMT

eMail	vbuzuev@gmail.com
Web site	http://snissa.com/lisp/pygen.htm
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Version	0.2 - Friday, 23 February 2007
Maturity	Experimental
OS compatibility
ASDF installable	Yes
Official Download	http://snissa.com/files/lisp/pygen_0.2.tar.gz
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Source code repository

The library is a set of macros tries to emulate python's generators functionality in lisp.

One difference from the python's generators it is impossible to save a generator to a variable and call 'next' method manually. Only 'foreach' syntax is supported.

How it works

The reason of missed 'next' method is that pygen does not use real continuations to implement generators (as python does). It uses continuations idea only. Library's macros perform CPS transformation for FOREACH and YIELD forms.

(defgenerator gen1()
  (yield 1)
  (yield 2)
  (yield 3))

(defun use-generator ()
  (foreach x in gen1()
    (print x)))

Normal thinking of the code is: OK, call gen1(), save the return value into a variable 'x' and call print(x); call gen1() again and do the same; cal gen1() again, again, again... In short, 'foreach' is a master and 'generator' is a slave - master calls slave while slave has a job to do.

But we can thing a little bit different: OK, we know what we are going to do with the generator's value - run the body of FOREACH form ((print x) in our case). So, it is possible to pass that code to a generator and the generator will call it when needed. The generator becomes a master and foreach becomes a slave. We can think about a generator as a normal function that receives additional parameter - what to do with the result value aka continuation. By pygen's macros the code above is transformed into something like this:

(defun gen1 (*cont*)
  (funcall *cont* 1)
  (funcall *cont* 2)
  (funcall *cont* 3))

(defun use-generator ()
  (gen1 #'(lambda (x) (print x))))

When to use

If a generator function is simple that means it is relatively easy to save and and restore the function's state in a closure it might be more appropriate to use series package or some other lazy-lists package. For someone it could be more convenient to pass a functional parameter represented a continuation to a generator directly. Pygen is doing well when a generator function is a quite complex, e.g. there are several inner loops or when it is needed to work with 'unwind-protect' resources such as files. For example, SAX and pull XML parsers could be implemented using generators.

Conclusion

Generators are an abstraction. If it is suitable for you - pygen is here :)

Compatible Implementations

Allegro Common Lisp | SBCL

Tags

Language Extensions | Python | Implementations | ASDF installable | Libraries

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