Feedback: The regex quantifiers seem to be greedy. I suppose that is the standard choice, but it would be nice if the docs explicitly said that.
Maybe have a 'rep' macro for exact quantification? My use cases for this are short sequences that would be handled just fine by 'cat', so I don't really need it. But if someone else needs to specify long-ish but fixed-size sequences, or sequences with a specific length range, they should speak up now. The docs should mention that you need to provide your own test.check dependency. They do obliquely, but being explicit never hurts. An example or two under the "Features > Overview > Maps" section would be nice. The text makes many good points about the design decisions made for map specs, I'd like to see them in action. (I am skeptical that a short example would convince me to namespace all my damn map keywords, though perhaps you'll lead me down the virtuous path.) All that said, it looks good and I think I'll have fun trying it out. --Leif On Monday, May 23, 2016 at 10:12:29 AM UTC-4, Rich Hickey wrote: > > Introducing clojure.spec > > I'm happy to introduce today clojure.spec, a new core library and support > for data and function specifications in Clojure. > > Better communication > > Clojure is a dynamic language, and thus far we have relied on > documentation or external libraries to explain the use and behavior of > functions and libraries. But documentation is difficult to produce, is > frequently not maintained, cannot be automatically checked and varies > greatly in quality. Specs are expressive and precise. Including spec in > Clojure creates a lingua franca with which we can state how our programs > work and how to use them. > > More leverage and power > > A key advantage of specifications over documentation is the leverage they > provide. In particular, specs can be utilized by programs in ways that docs > cannot. Defining specs takes effort, and spec aims to maximize the return > you get from making that effort. spec gives you tools for leveraging specs > in documentation, validation, error reporting, destructuring, > instrumentation, test-data generation and generative testing. > > Improved developer experience > > Error messages from macros are a perennial challenge for new (and > experienced) users of Clojure. specs can be used to conform data in macros > instead of using a custom parser. And Clojure's macro expansion will > automatically use specs, when present, to explain errors to users. This > should result in a greatly improved experience for users when errors occur. > > More robust software > > Clojure has always been about simplifying the development of robust > software. In all languages, dynamic or not, tests are essential to quality > - too many critical properties are not captured by common type systems. > spec has been designed from the ground up to directly support generative > testing via test.check https://github.com/clojure/test.check. When you > use spec you get generative tests for free. > > Taken together, I think the features of spec demonstrate the ongoing > advantages of a powerful dynamic language like Clojure for building robust > software - superior expressivity, instrumentation-enhanced REPL-driven > development, sophisticated testing and more flexible systems. I encourage > you to read the spec rationale and overview http://clojure.org/about/spec. > Look for spec's inclusion in the next alpha release of Clojure, within a > day or so. > > Note that spec is still alpha, and some details are likely to change. > Feedback welcome. > > I hope you find spec useful and powerful! > > Rich > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
