extensible-optimizing-coerce

Status

• Library is immature; wait for a few months or years until this library gets more thoroughly tested.

Crucial dependencies:

Why

Common Lisp has a variety of non-uniform type-conversions. Some use cl:coerce, others use cl:float or cl:string, and lots more. In some sense, the cl:coerce function is information-preserving in that it prevents non-integers from being coerced into integers, or characters from being converted to and from integers. If you find these semantics useful, you might not find extensible-optimizing-coerce:coerce as useful.

OTOH, a case could be made that the prevalence of information non-preserving type conversions makes things easier for prototyping, enables better polymorphism, as well as makes things easier for new people.

Examples

See coercions.lisp and tests.lisp and docstrings.

generic-cl:coerce

A naive use of generic-functions is not suitable for the purpose of coercion in the Common Lisp world. For instance:

(in-package :generic-cl)
(deftype int () 'integer)
(defmethod coerce ((num real) (type (eql 'integer)))
  (floor num))

(coerce 2.5 'integer) ;=> works
(coerce 2.5 'int) ;=> does not work
(extensible-optimizing-coerce:coerce 2.5 'int) ;=> works

Philosophy

An earlier version of this library allowed for coercions between arbitrary types. However, that made no sense, since coercions seem to be intended at changing the internal representation of an object. The more appropriate representation of the internal structure is the class of which the object is an instance of! See Pittman's Best of Intentions.

Thus, now, coercions can only be defined from one class to another class. One may certainly supply additional arguments. See coercions.lisp for examples.

Documentation

The main function is (extensible-optimizing-coerce:coerce object output-type-spec): This converts OBJECT to type specified by OUTPUT-TYPE-SPEC.

The applicable coercion is guaranteed to take an object of (super)type of OBJECT and return an object of type= specified by OUTPUT-TYPE-SPEC. (See Role of Extended Types.)

Important functions and macros

• coerce
• list-all-coercions
• define-coercion
• undefine-coercion

Example usages of define-coercion can be found in coercions.lisp. Note that this also allows for additional coercion parameters.

Compile Time Optimizations

CL-USER> (trivial-package-local-nicknames:add-package-local-nickname
          :coerce :extensible-optimizing-coerce)
#<PACKAGE "COMMON-LISP-USER">
CL-USER> (defun to-type (a type)
           (coerce:coerce a type))
TO-TYPE
CL-USER> (defun to-type (a type)
           (declare (optimize speed))
           (coerce:coerce a type))

; (Compiler) Macro of COERCE:COERCE is unable to optimize
;   (TRIVIAL-COERCE:COERCE A TYPE)
; because:
;
;   Could not derive the OUTPUT-TYPE-SPEC from its type derived to be
;     T
WARNING: redefining COMMON-LISP-USER::TO-TYPE in DEFUN
TO-TYPE
CL-USER> (defun to-integer (a)
           (declare (optimize speed))
           (coerce:coerce a 'integer))

; (Compiler) Macro of COERCE:COERCE is unable to optimize
;   (COERCE:COERCE A 'INTEGER)
; because:
;
;   No coercion found for object derived to be of type
;     T
;   to output-type-spec
;     (INTEGER)
TO-INTEGER
CL-USER> (defun to-integer (a)
           (declare (optimize speed)
                    (type real a))
           (coerce:coerce a 'integer))
WARNING: redefining EXCL::TO-INTEGER in DEFUN
TO-INTEGER
CL-USER> (disassemble 'to-integer)
; disassembly for TO-INTEGER
; Size: 141 bytes. Origin: #x53B6AB8F                         ; TO-INTEGER
; B8F:       4883EC10         SUB RSP, 16
; B93:       488B55F8         MOV RDX, [RBP-8]
; B97:       48892C24         MOV [RSP], RBP
; B9B:       488BEC           MOV RBP, RSP
; B9E:       B842462550       MOV EAX, #x50254642             ; #<FDEFN SB-KERNEL:UNARY-TRUNCATE>
; BA3:       FFD0             CALL RAX
; BA5:       488955F0         MOV [RBP-16], RDX
; BA9:       48897DE8         MOV [RBP-24], RDI
; BAD:       488B55E8         MOV RDX, [RBP-24]
; BB1:       31FF             XOR EDI, EDI
; BB3:       FF142598050050   CALL [#x50000598]               ; #x52A00FF0: GENERIC-=
; BBA:       751F             JNE L2
; BBC: L0:   488B45F0         MOV RAX, [RBP-16]
; BC0:       488B7DE8         MOV RDI, [RBP-24]
; BC4: L1:   488BD0           MOV RDX, RAX
; BC7:       488D5D10         LEA RBX, [RBP+16]
; BCB:       B904000000       MOV ECX, 4
; BD0:       BE17010050       MOV ESI, #x50000117             ; NIL
; BD5:       F9               STC
; BD6:       488BE5           MOV RSP, RBP
; BD9:       5D               POP RBP
; BDA:       C3               RET
; BDB: L2:   488B55F8         MOV RDX, [RBP-8]
; BDF:       31FF             XOR EDI, EDI
; BE1:       FF142588050050   CALL [#x50000588]               ; #x52A00F90: GENERIC-<
; BE8:       7DD2             JNL L0
; BEA:       488B55F0         MOV RDX, [RBP-16]
; BEE:       BF02000000       MOV EDI, 2
; BF3:       FF142570050050   CALL [#x50000570]               ; #x52A00E30: GENERIC--
; BFA:       488BC2           MOV RAX, RDX
; BFD:       488945F8         MOV [RBP-8], RAX
; C01:       488B55E8         MOV RDX, [RBP-24]
; C05:       BF02000000       MOV EDI, 2
; C0A:       FF142568050050   CALL [#x50000568]               ; #x52A00DC0: GENERIC-+
; C11:       488BFA           MOV RDI, RDX
; C14:       488B45F8         MOV RAX, [RBP-8]
; C18:       EBAA             JMP L1
; C1A:       CC10             INT3 16                         ; Invalid argument count trap
NIL