A little math language

Richard Suchenwirth 2002-01-02 - Tcl is somehow more than just a programming language. At times it feels like a quite powerful operating system, with commands that have their own "small languages" (sed, awk in Unix; expr, regexp... in Tcl). But while implementing seds or awks functionality in C is hard work, in Tcl the creation of a custom "small language" is made easy by strong string processing commands. Hence I chose a small math language for my New Year's Eve fun project.

The accepted language is based on expr's, which is well known to Tcl'ers and able to express all C arithmetics (and more), so isn't exactly small. However, I added some functionalities discussed earlier on comp.lang.tcl, plus some sugar to make it look more similar to conventional math notation:

  • allow multiple expressions, separated by semicolon
  • allow one infix assignment per expression, like i = j + 1
  • allow references to existing variables without prefixed dollar sign
  • allow omission of parens around simple function arguments
  • allow omission of the * operator after numeric constants
  • allow one fraction to be written with horizontal bar instead of /

These effects took little effort, as they were reached by string manipulations on the arguments to math, which transform them to valid expr language, and evaluate that in caller's scope. On the other hand, no tokenization like that of expr was done (where $i+$j is equivalent to $i + $j), so the arguments have to be list elements separated by whitespace. At the place marked "more preprocessing here", you can add your own ideas. See the usage examples at end, and enjoy!

 proc math args {
    if {[llength $args]==1} {set args [lindex $args 0]}
    foreach mathcmd [split $args ";"] {
        set cmd ""
        if {[lindex $mathcmd 1]=="="} {
            set cmd [list set [lindex $mathcmd 0]]
            set expr [lrange $mathcmd 2 end]
        } else {set expr $mathcmd}
        set expr2 "expr \{("
        set previous ""
        foreach i $expr {
            if [uplevel 1 info exists $i] {set i \$$i}
            if [regexp -- {--+} $i] {set i )/double(}
            if [isBuiltin $previous] {set i ($i)}
            if {[isNumeric $previous] && [regexp {^[$A-Za-z_]} $i]} {
                set i *$i
            }
            # more preprocessing here..
            set previous $i
            append expr2 $i 
        }
        append expr2 ")\}"
        if {$cmd==""} {
            set cmd $expr2
        } else {
            append cmd " \[$expr2\]"
        }
        set res [uplevel 1 $cmd]
    }
    set res ;# return last expression's result
 }
 proc isBuiltin word {
    expr [lsearch -exact {
        abs     cosh        log     sqrt
        acos        double        log10        srand
        asin        exp     pow     tan
        atan        floor        rand        tanh
        atan2        fmod        round
        ceil        hypot        sin
        cos     int     sinh} $word ]>=0
 }
 proc isNumeric x {expr ![catch {expr $x*1}]}
 # testing, and usage examples:
 math {
    a = 1 * (2 - 1);
    b = sqrt 4;

    c = 3 a - b
        -------
         a + b
 }
 puts c:$c

GWM The following simplification checks all the built in math functions plus any yet to be developed in Tcl9,10,11 or 999! Year 3000 compliant code?

 proc isBuiltin word {
        expr [lsearch -exact [info functions] $word ]>=0
 }

Lars H: Except that TIP 232 changes the entire mechanism for "builtin" functions. As of Tcl 8.5, info functions is deprecated.


Arjen Markus Inspired by this script, I wrote a small calculator, with the ability to use a primitive kind of functions. It took me half an evening and is not quite complete (error handling, a wish interface, ...) but it works:

   >> a = sin(b)

   >> b = 1

   >> a
   0.841470984808
   >> quit

Below is the code.

Warning: it does not accept numbers like 1.0e-3!

   # calculator.tcl --
   #    Script to emulate a calculator, allows the on-the-spot
   #    evaluation of expressions as well the use of macros
   #
   # Author: Arjen Markus ([email protected])
   #

   # Macro --
   #    Namespace for the user-defined macros
   #
   namespace eval ::Macro {
   }

   # Calculator --
   #    Namespace for the public commands
   #
   namespace eval ::Calculator {
   }

   # HandleCommand --
   #    Identify the type of command and handle accordingly
   #
   # Arguments:
   #    command     Command that must be handled
   # Return value:
   #    {} if the command is a definition or the value of the expression.
   # Side effects:
   #    Definitions are handled directly
   #
   proc ::Calculator::HandleCommand { command } {
      set new_command [string map { " " "" "\t" "" } $command]

      #
      # Definitions take the form "name=some expression"
      if { [regexp {^[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9]*=[^=]} $new_command] } {
         HandleDefinition $new_command
         return ""
      } else {
         Evaluate $new_command
      }
   }

   # Evaluate --
   #    Evaluate the expression
   #
   # Arguments:
   #    command     Command that must be evaluated
   # Return value:
   #    The value of the expression.
   #
   proc ::Calculator::Evaluate { command } {

      set new_command [ConstructMacroCalls $command]
      return [expr $new_command]
   }

   # ConstructMacroCalls --
   #    Construct the calls to a macro
   #
   # Arguments:
   #    body        The raw body of the macro
   # Return value:
   #    An expression valid for use in [expr]
   # Note:
   #    Beware of expressions like "sin(1.0)" - they are not macros
   #
   proc ::Calculator::ConstructMacroCalls { body } {

      regsub -all {([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z_0-9]*)} \
         $body {[::Macro::\1]} new_body
      regsub -all {\[::Macro::([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z_0-9]*)\]\(} \
         $new_body {\1(} new_body

      return $new_body
   }

   # HandleDefinition --
   #    Define the macro based on the given command
   #
   # Arguments:
   #    command     Command that represents a definition
   # Return value:
   #    The value of the expression.
   #
   proc ::Calculator::HandleDefinition { command } {

      regexp {(^[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9]*)=(.*)} $command matched macro body
      set new_body [ConstructMacroCalls $body]
      proc ::Macro::$macro {} [list expr $new_body]
      return
   }


   # main code --
   #    In a loop, read the expressions and evaluate them
   #
   puts "Calculator:
      Example:
      >> a=b+1

      >> b=1

      >> a
      2
      >>1.0+2.0+3.0
      6.0
      (Use quit to exit the program)"

   while { 1 } {
      puts -nonewline ">> "
      flush stdout
      gets stdin line

      if { $line == "quit" } {
         break
      } else {
         if { [ catch {
                   puts [::Calculator::HandleCommand $line]
                } message ] != 0 } {
            puts "Error: [lindex [split $message "\n"] 0]"
         }
      }
   }

AM See also: A little math language revisited



gold10/10/2020, added appendix, but above text and code unchanged.


Screenshots




figure 1. A little math language computer geeks, Team one scores first screenshot




A little math language screenshot one


References



Hidden Comments Section

Please include your wiki MONIKER and date in your comment Thanks, gold 12Aug2020