Hi Dean
PicoLisp is an interpreted language, so very dynamic.
Therefore, why not just do it with a global flag variable?
(off *Scaffolding) # do not load scaffolding
...
(de myCode ...)
(when *Scaffolding
(de myScaffoldingFunc1 ...)
(de myScaffoldingFunc2 ...)
(de myScaffoldingFunc3 ...) )
So all the (de) is only executed if *Scaffolding is not NIL.
(off *Scaffolding) sets global variable *Scaffolding to NIL.
(on *Scaffolding) sets global variable to T (used as true in picolisp).
This can be made even shorter:
(off *Scaffolding) # or (on *Scaffolding), depending on context
...
(de myCode ...)
`*Scaffolding # evaluate *Scaffolding during reading of the source file, when
its NIL, (load)ing stops
(de myScaffoldingFunc1 ...)
(de myScaffoldingFunc2 ...)
(de myScaffoldingFunc3 ...)
Regards,
beneroth
----- Original Message -----
From: dean [mailto:[email protected]]
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wed, 8 Feb 2017 16:31:30 +0000
Subject: Re: unit testing?
Hi Alex and Christophe
In Python that __name__ variable stops things like a local main proc from
executing altogether...when Python detects that the module in which it
exists no longer needs it because it is being loaded by a bigger program,
which accesses the module's code like the local main does i.e. The local
main is hidden from Python under such circumstances.
I was wondering about the "once" situation too....because I have
experienced "function redeclared" or some such popping up. If you're
telling me that such messages are inconsequential compared to the benefits
of developing in a way which causes that.....that's fine by me because it's
easier to ignore the redeclaration messages than not :)
Because PL seems to allow forward referencing...I was....
1 Putting all the scaffolding down the bottom with my local main so it's
all in the same place.
2 Commenting it all out...
3 Loading the module into the wider program and then
4 Comment the helper functions back in as PL reported their absence.
Obviously the local main stays commented out.
This seems fairly convenient but my interpretation of the above is I only
need to comment out the local main and if that's right that's great.
Thank you Chrostophe for the further explanation re Python.
Best Regards
Dean
On 8 February 2017 at 14:47, Christophe Gragnic <[email protected]
> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 8, 2017 at 12:13 PM, Alexander Burger <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> >> I'm thinking of Python's `if __name__ == '__main__' and Perl's unless
> >> (caller) {...}
> >
> > I don't know Python and Perl well enough. But perhaps 'once' is what you
> think
> > of?
> >
> > (once (load "xxx.l"))
>
> No, it's different.
>
> In Python there's a «magic» variable named __name__.
> As files can be:
> - imported from another script/module
> - interpreted directly from top leve
> it provides a trick to distinguish between those two ways to use a
> script/module.
> See here:
> https://docs.python.org/3/library/__main__.html
>
>
> chri
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