TEACH PERCENT A. Sloman Jan 1991
THE PERCENT SYMBOL "%"
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CONTENTS - (Use <ENTER> g to access required sections)
-- Overview
-- Using the percent symbol in list expressions [ % ... % ]
-- Defining a procedure that creates lists using %
-- Using "^" instead of "%...%"
-- Using ^^ or % %to merge lists
-- Loops inside list expressions
-- Using percent symbols to form closures (partial application)
-- Other uses of the percent symbol
-- Further reading-- Overview -----------------------------------------------------------
The percent symbol has several distinct uses in POP-11, of which the two
most common are
o Its use in building lists
o Its use in partial application, i.e. partially applying a general
procedure to create a new more specialised procedure.
The other uses are relevant to more advanced programming:
o Building vectors (this is similar to the use of "%" in buildling
lists)
o Use with "cons_with" in structure expressions
o Setting entry and exit actions for procedures, using "dlocal".
-- Using the percent symbol in list expressions [ % ... % ] -----------
If text items are inserted between list brackets, as in
[ the sum of 3 and 3 is 8]
then the list created contains the words as if they had been quoted,
i.e. the words "the", "sum", "of", "and" and "is". So it prints thus:
[ the sum of 3 and 3 is 8] =>
** [the sum of 3 and 3 is 8]
No attempt is made to treat the words as variables with values. In fact
the list can contain illegal POP-11 instructions:
[ 3 + 3 4 => ] =>
** [3 + 3 4 =>]
There is no error message, as there would be if the square brackets
were omitted.
However it is sometimes desirable to have some or all of the text in a
list expression evaluated, i.e. treated as program to be executed, with
the results included in the list. This can be done by enclosing the
relevant bit of program between two percent symbols. Thus:
[The sum of 3 and 8 is % 3 + 8 %] =>
** [The sum of 3 and 8 is 11]
So a very common use of percent symbols in POP-11 programs is to change
the contents of a list from being quoted, to being evaluated (or
executed, or run). E.g. try the following examples. You can use the load
marked range facility to see what the instructions produce, as explained
in TEACH * LMR:
vars lista listb;
[ 3 + 4 ] -> lista;
[% 3 + 4 %] -> listb;
lista => ;;; should produce ** [3 + 4]
listb => ;;; should produce ** [7]
See how the following print out:
hd(lista) =>
** 3
[ hd(lista), "number" ] =>
** [hd ( lista ) , " number "]
Notice how the text items are separated out when the list is printed.
Now compare the effect with percents, to "unquote" the contents of the
list expression and turn it into program instructions to be obeyed.
[ % hd(lista), "number" %] =>
** [3 number]
The first list, produced without the "%" symbols contains all EIGHT of
the items that were typed between the brackets, whereas everything
between the percents in the second list has been treated as program to
be executed, and the TWO results put in the list.
POP-11 (unlike earlier versions of POP2) allows 'floating' percents, so
that part of a list is quoted and part evaluated. Can you tell what the
following will do:
[ 9 + 5 = % 9+5 % ] =>
try it, and similar examples.
How can you use the percents to make a list which records some larger
sum, e.g. to demonstrate the effect of
(55 + 23) * 11
You could use:
[ (55 + 23) * 11 = % (55 + 23) * 11 % ] =>
compare
[ (29 + 4) * 99 = % (29 + 4) * 99 % ] =>
-- Defining a procedure that creates lists using % --------------------
You can generalise this sort of thing by creating a procedure which
makes lists, e.g. (be sure to put the percents in the right places).
define showsum(x,y) -> result;
[the sum of %x% and %y% is %x + y%] -> result;
enddefine;
showsum(5,11) =>
** [the sum of 5 and 11 is 16]
showsum(99,166) =>
** [the sum of 99 and 166 is 265]
Before reading on try defining a similar procedure SHOWPROD which makes
a list stating what the product of three numbers is.
A possible answer follows. Look at it after you have tried your own.
Your procedure might have been something like
define showprod(x,y,z) -> prod;
[the product of %x% , %y% and %z% is %x * y * z%] -> prod;
enddefine;
test it
prod(3,4,5) =>
prod(11,12,13) =>
-- Using "^" instead of "%...%" ---------------------------------------
It is so tedious typing %x% %y% etc, that POP-11 allows you to use just
the symbol "^" in front of a variable, to get it evaluated inside a
list, as in the following:
3 -> x; 4 -> y; 7 -> z;
[the sum of ^x and ^y is ^z] =>
If you don't want to have the third variable, you can do
[the sum of ^x and ^y is ^(x + y)] =>
Notice that ^( <expression> ) is equivalent to % <expression> %
Which you prefer is a matter of taste. More examples of "^" can be found
in TEACH * ARROW.
If you use "^" before something more complex than a single variable,
then you MUST have the parentheses: ^( ).
define showsum(x,y) -> sum;
[the sum of ^x and ^y is ^(x + y) ] -> sum;
enddefine;
Some people find it more convenient to use two percents % %, rather
than ^( ), especially when the text between the brackets contains
complex POP-11 including brackets. E.g. which of these equivalent
forms do you find more readable?
[^(hd(tl([a b c])))] =>
[%hd(tl([a b c]))%] =>
You may already have come across the "^" symbol in connection with
MATCHES and DATABASE. %X% is exactly equivalent to ^X inside a list.
It is important that you don't need to use the symbol "^" or the percent
symbols to get the value of a variable outside a list, e.g. the
following will produce a 'MISPLACED SYNTAX WORD' error:
% x % =>
The following produces a 'MISSING SEPARATOR' error because it treats "^"
as the name of an unknown variable outside list brackets:
^x =>
-- Using ^^ or % %to merge lists --------------------------------------
If you want to put the elements of an existing list into another
list as separate elements of the new list you can use %..% and the
POP-11 procedure -dl- (a mnemonic for "destruct list"). -dl- just
puts all the elements of the list onto the stack:
vars list;
[d e f g] -> list;
list =>
** [d e f g]
dl(list) =>
** d e f g
We can create a new list containing the elements of -list- thus:
[% dl(list) %] =>
** [d e f g]
The double up arrow is available as an abbreviation for this. So the
form
[ ^^( ) ]
is a shorthand equivalent to
[ % dl( )% ]
So we can type
[ ^^(list) ] =>
** [d e f g]
as with "^", if the item within the parenthesis is just a single
identifier, then the parenthesis can be omitted:
[^^list] =>
** [d e f g]
Compare the single up arrow:
[ ^list ] =>
** [[d e f g]]
This makes a new list containing only one element, the whole original
list.
Using ^^ we can join two or more lists together.
vars list1;
[a b c] -> list1;
[^^list1 ^^list] =>
** [a b c d e f g]
This is equivalent to
list1 <> list2 =>
Here are some more examples. Try them and variations, using <ENTER> lmr.
vars x,y,z;
[a b c] -> x;
[d e] -> y;
[f] -> z;
[^x ^y ^z] =>
** [[a b c] [d e] [f]]
[^^x ^^y ^^z] =>
** [a b c d e f]
[^x ^^y] =>
** [[a b c] d e]
[p ^^x y] =>
** [p a b c y]
You can put the same thing into a list more than once:
[^^x ^^y ^^x] =>
** [a b c d e a b c]
If you want to use not just the value of a variable, but some more
complex expression (which MUST produce a list) after "^^", then, as with
"^", you need parentheses: ^^( ). Try the following
[^x ^^(tl(x)) ] =>
[^^x ^^(rev(x)) ] =>
-- Loops inside list expressions --------------------------------------
Using percent signs enables us to put a 'loop' command inside list
brackets, to create a list that would be tedious to type in. For
instance, the following loop puts the numbers from 1 to 20 on the stack.
vars num;
for num from 1 by 1 to 20 do num endfor;
now print them out
=>
'BY 1' says 'increment the variable by 1 each time.' When the increment
is 1 you can leave it out. e.g. 'FOR X FROM 1 TO 20 DO....ENDFOR.
E.g.
vars x;
for x from 3 to 8 do x endfor =>
** 3 4 5 6 7 8
for x from 0 by 5 to 30 do x endfor =>
** 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Type in a loop to put all the even numbers up to 30 on the stack, and
then print them out:
for num from 2 .... endfor =>
what should go in place of the dots?
We can now put such a loop inside list brackets and make a list of all
the results. For instance here is a procedure which will make a list of
all the numbers up to N:
define listto(n) -> list;
vars num;
[% for num from 1 to n do num endfor%] -> list;
enddefine;
test it
listto(5) =>
** [1 2 3 4 5]
listto(10) =>
** [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10]
listto(50) =>
Now try defining a procedure LISTALL which takes three inputs
a starting number START
an increment INC
an upper limit LIM
and makes a list of all the numbers between START and LIM, incremented
by INC, e.g.
listall(3,5,20) =>
should produce
[ 3 8 13 18]
A hint follows if you have difficulty.
If you did not succeed, try filling the gaps in the following:
define listall(start,inc,lim)-> list;
vars num;
[%for num from start .....endfor%] -> list
enddefine;
Test your procedure.
Other loops besides FOR loops can be used inside [ % ..... % ] E.g. it
is often convenient to use UNTIL or WHILE loops. The crucial thing to
remember is that everything left on the stack during execution of the
loop will become part of the list created by '[ ]'.
TEACH * ARROW; will give you a little more practice with ^ and ^^.
The remainder of this teach file is concerned with other uses of the
percent symbol.
-- Using percent symbols to form closures (partial application) -------
Percent symbols can be used to 'partially apply' a procedure to some
arguments which are "frozen in" to create a new procedure which, when
later executed behaves as like the original procedure run with the
frozen argument.
E.g. SQRT is a procedure which produces the square root of a number.
sqrt(3) => ;;; prints the square root of 3
** 1.73205
You can partially apply it to 3 to produce a a procedure which always
returns the square root of 3.
vars sq3;
sqrt(%3%) -> sq3; ;;; partially apply SQRT to 3, to create a new
;;; procedure, which is assigned to SQ3
sq3 => ;;; SQ3 now has a procedure as its value
** <procedure sqrt> ;;; Its name is derived from SQRT
sq3() => ;;; CAll the new procedure. It needs no
** 1.73205 ;;; argument, as it already has one 'frozen'
;;; in.
A procedure produced by partial application is called a CLOSURE.
Additional kinds of closures are described in the files HELP * CLOSURES
and HELP * LVARS (Not for beginners).
A POP-11 closure can be used like an ordinary procedure. Its components
can be accessed using PDPART and FROZVAL, explained in
HELP * PDPART
HELP * FROZVAL
HELP * CLOSURES
The example SQ3 was rather silly. A more sensible example would use a
procedure partially applied to another procedure, or to some
datastructure. For example, MAPLIST takes two arguments, a list and a
procedure, applies the procedure to all elements of the list, and makes
a new list of all the results:
maplist([1 2 3 4 5], sqrt)=>
** [1.0 1.41421 1.73205 2.0 2.23607]
We can partially apply MAPLIST to SQRT to create a new procedure of one
argument which takes a list and returns a list of square roots, e.g.
vars sqrt_of_list;
maplist(%sqrt%) -> sqrt_of_list; ;;; partially apply maplist
;;; to form a closure
sqrt_of_list([4 9 16 25])=>
** [2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0]
sqrt_of_list([10 100 1000 10000])=>
** [3.16228 10.0 31.6228 100.0]
For more information on this see HELP * CLOSURES, * PARTAPPLY, *PERCENT-- Other uses of the percent symbol -----------------------------------
Just as the percent symbol (and "^" and "^^") can he used in list
expressions, so they can also be used in constructing vectors. E.g.
{a vector with five words} =>
** {a vector with five words}
{a new vector with % 3 + 3 % items } =>
** {a new vector with 6 items}
REF * VECTORS explains what vectors are in more detail.
The syntax word "cons_with" that can be used with curly braces to
construct a variety of structures. It is followed by the name of the
constructor procedure, then an expression in braces indicating the
contents of the structure.
So, instead of
[a b c d] =>
** [a b c d]
We could have
cons_with conslist {a b c d} =>
** [a b c d]
Similarly, instead of
{a vector} =>
** {a vector}
we can use
cons_with consvector {a vector} =>
** {a vector}
The percent symbol can be used within the braces to case POP-11 code to
be evaluated:
cons_with consvector {% 1,2,3, 99 * 9 %} =>
** {1 2 3 891}
A totally different use of the percent symbol occurs with the syntax
word "dlocal" can be used in advanced programs to define "dynamic local"
expressions, specifying actions to be executed when a procedure is
entered or exited, either normally or abnormally. Advanced programmers
wishing to know more should consult HELP * DLOCAL-- Further reading ----------------------------------------------------
Some of the information presented here is elaborated in:
R.Barrett, A.Ramsay and A.Sloman
POP-11: A practical language for artificial intelligence
- Use of % in list expressions: sections 5.3, 6.2
- In partial application: section 11.3
- In vector expressions: section 10.1
TEACH * ARROW
HELP * CLOSURES (more on partial application)
HELP * DLOCAL
HELP * CONS_WITH
--- C.all/teach/percent ------------------------------------------------
--- Copyright University of Sussex 1991. All rights reserved. ----------