I would like to write a macro to create shorthand syntax for hiding more verbose lambda expressions, but I'm struggling to understand how to write macros (which I realize is an argument against using them).
Given this example:
(define alist-example
'((x 1 2 3) (y 4 5 6) (z 7 8 9)))
(define ($ alist name)
(cdr (assoc name alist)))
((lambda (a) (map (lambda (x y z) (+ x y z)) ($ a 'x) ($ a 'y) ($ a 'z))) alist-example)
((lambda (a) (map (lambda (y) (/ y (apply max ($ a 'y)))) ($ a 'y))) alist-example)
I would like to write a macro, with-alist, that would allow me to write the last two expressions similar to this:
(with-alist alist-example (+ x y z))
(with-alist alist-example (/ y (apply max y)))
Any advice or suggestions?
Here is a syntax-rules solution based on the feedback that I received in the other answer and comments:
(define ($ alist name)
(cdr (assoc name alist)))
(define-syntax with-alist
(syntax-rules ()
[(_ alist names expr)
(let ([alist-local alist])
(apply map (lambda names expr)
(map (lambda (name) ($ alist-local name)) (quote names))))]))
Here is some example usage:
> (define alist-example
'((x 1 2 3) (y 4 5 6) (z 7 8 9)))
> (with-alist alist-example (x) (+ x 2))
(3 4 5)
> (with-alist alist-example (x y) (+ x y))
(5 7 9)
> (with-alist alist-example (x y z) (+ x y z))
(12 15 18)
This answer stops short of solving the more complicated example, (with-alist alist-example (/ y (apply max y))), in my question, but I think this is a reasonable approach for my purposes:
> (with-alist alist-example (y) (/ y (apply max ($ alist-example 'y))))
(2/3 5/6 1)
EDIT: After some additional tinkering, I arrived at a slightly different solution that I think will provide more flexibility.
My new macro, npl, expands shorthand expressions into a list of names and procedures.
(define-syntax npl
(syntax-rules ()
[(_ (names expr) ...)
(list
(list (quote names) ...)
(list (lambda names expr) ...))]))
The output of this macro is passed to a regular procedure, with-list-map, that contains most the core functionality in the with-alist macro above.
(define (with-alist-map alist names-proc-list)
(let ([names-list (car names-proc-list)]
[proc-list (cadr names-proc-list)])
(map (lambda (names proc)
(apply map proc
(map (lambda (name) ($ alist name)) names)))
names-list proc-list)))
The 3 examples of with-alist usage above can be captured in a single call to with-alist-map.
> (with-alist-map alist-example
(npl ((x) (+ x 2))
((x y) (+ x y))
((x y z) (+ x y z))))
((3 4 5) (5 7 9) (12 15 18))