The Boolean test for equality in the domain Any fails for structured objects, e.g. of type List:

)set message any off

showTypeInOutput true;

a:Any:=[1,2]

(1)

b:Any:=[1,2]

(2)

a=b

(3)

test %

(4)

Proposed Fix

The problem seems to be the use of Lisp EQ instead of EQUAL in the domain Any.

++ Author: Robert S. Sutor
++ Date Created:
++ Change History:
++ Basic Functions: any, domainOf, objectOf, dom, obj, showTypeInOutput
++ Related Constructors: AnyFunctions1
++ Also See: None
++ AMS Classification:
++ Keywords:
++ Description:
++   \spadtype{Any} implements a type that packages up objects and their
++   types in objects of \spadtype{Any}. Roughly speaking that means
++   that if \spad{s : S} then when converted to \spadtype{Any}, the new
++   object will include both the original object and its type. This is
++   a way of converting arbitrary objects into a single type without
++   losing any of the original information. Any object can be converted
++   to one of \spadtype{Any}.

Any(): SetCategory with
        any             : (SExpression, None) -> %
          ++ any(type,object) is a technical function for creating
          ++ an object of \spadtype{Any}. Arugment \spad{type} is a \spadgloss{LISP} form
          ++ for the type of \spad{object}.
        domainOf        : % -> OutputForm
          ++ domainOf(a) returns a printable form of the type of the
          ++ original object that was converted to \spadtype{Any}.
        objectOf        : % -> OutputForm
          ++ objectOf(a) returns a printable form of the
          ++ original object that was converted to \spadtype{Any}.
        dom             : % -> SExpression
          ++ dom(a) returns a \spadgloss{LISP} form of the type of the
          ++ original object that was converted to \spadtype{Any}.
        obj             : % -> None
          ++ obj(a) essentially returns the original object that was
          ++ converted to \spadtype{Any} except that the type is forced
          ++ to be \spadtype{None}.
        showTypeInOutput: Boolean -> String
          ++ showTypeInOutput(bool) affects the way objects of
          ++ \spadtype{Any} are displayed. If \spad{bool} is true
          ++ then the type of the original object that was converted
          ++ to \spadtype{Any} will be printed. If \spad{bool} is
          ++ false, it will not be printed.

 == add
     Rep := Record(dm: SExpression, ob: None)

     printTypeInOutputP:Reference(Boolean) := ref false

     obj x      == x.ob
     dom x      == x.dm
     domainOf x == x.dm pretend OutputForm
     x = y      == (x.dm = y.dm) and EQUAL(x.ob, y.ob)$Lisp

     objectOf(x : %) : OutputForm ==
       spad2BootCoerce(x.ob, x.dm,
          list("OutputForm"::Symbol)$List(Symbol))$Lisp

     showTypeInOutput(b : Boolean) : String ==
      printTypeInOutputP := ref b
      b=> "Type of object will be displayed in output of a member of Any"
      "Type of object will not be displayed in output of a member of Any"

     coerce(x):OutputForm ==
       obj1 : OutputForm := objectOf x
       not deref printTypeInOutputP => obj1
       dom1 :=
         p:Symbol := prefix2String(devaluate(x.dm)$Lisp)$Lisp
         atom?(p pretend SExpression) => list(p)$List(Symbol)
         list(p)$Symbol
       hconcat cons(obj1,
         cons(":"::OutputForm, [a::OutputForm for a in dom1]))

     any(domain, object) ==
       (isValidType(domain)$Lisp)@Boolean => [domain, object]
       domain := devaluate(domain)$Lisp
       (isValidType(domain)$Lisp)@Boolean => [domain, object]
       error "function any must have a domain as first argument"

   Compiling FriCAS source code from file 
      /var/lib/zope2.10/instance/axiom-wiki/var/LatexWiki/7328750709169231775-25px003.spad
      using old system compiler.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
   initializing NRLIB ANY for Any 
   compiling into NRLIB ANY 
   compiling exported obj : $ -> None
      ANY;obj;$N;1 is replaced by QCDR 

;;;     ***       |ANY;obj;$N;1| REDEFINED
Time: 0.01 SEC.

   compiling exported dom : $ -> SExpression
      ANY;dom;$Se;2 is replaced by QCAR 

;;;     ***       |ANY;dom;$Se;2| REDEFINED
Time: 0 SEC.

   compiling exported domainOf : $ -> OutputForm
      ANY;domainOf;$Of;3 is replaced by QCAR 

;;;     ***       |ANY;domainOf;$Of;3| REDEFINED
Time: 0 SEC.

   compiling exported = : ($,$) -> Boolean

;;;     ***       |ANY;=;2$B;4| REDEFINED
Time: 0 SEC.

   compiling exported objectOf : $ -> OutputForm

;;;     ***       |ANY;objectOf;$Of;5| REDEFINED
Time: 0.01 SEC.

   compiling exported showTypeInOutput : Boolean -> String

;;;     ***       |ANY;showTypeInOutput;BS;6| REDEFINED
Time: 0 SEC.

   compiling exported coerce : $ -> OutputForm

;;;     ***       |ANY;coerce;$Of;7| REDEFINED
Time: 0 SEC.

   compiling exported any : (SExpression,None) -> $

;;;     ***       |ANY;any;SeN$;8| REDEFINED
Time: 0 SEC.

(time taken in buildFunctor:  0)

;;;     ***       |Any| REDEFINED

;;;     ***       |Any| REDEFINED
Time: 0 SEC.

   Cumulative Statistics for Constructor Any
      Time: 0.02 seconds

   finalizing NRLIB ANY 
   Processing Any for Browser database:
--------constructor---------
--------(any (% (SExpression) (None)))---------
--------(domainOf ((OutputForm) %))---------
--------(objectOf ((OutputForm) %))---------
--------(dom ((SExpression) %))---------
--------(obj ((None) %))---------
--------(showTypeInOutput ((String) (Boolean)))---------
; compiling file "/var/aw/var/LatexWiki/ANY.NRLIB/ANY.lsp" (written 18 JUL 2013 09:16:36 PM):

; /var/aw/var/LatexWiki/ANY.NRLIB/ANY.fasl written
; compilation finished in 0:00:00.032
------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Any is now explicitly exposed in frame initial 
   Any will be automatically loaded when needed from 
      /var/aw/var/LatexWiki/ANY.NRLIB/ANY

Re-test

)set message any off

showTypeInOutput true;

a:Any:=[1,2]

(5)

b:Any:=[1,2]

(6)

a=b

(7)

test %

(8)

See also SandBoxSetAny

p: Set ANY := set [1,2];

q: Set ANY := set [2,1];

test(p=q)

(9)

test(p::ANY=q::ANY)

(10)

If the domain has canonical, the test using EQUAL might work...

test((3/4)::ANY = (3/4)::ANY)

(11)

Martin

I'm not sure how the correspondence SEX and Type ought to work...

I guess what you are not sure about is the reasonableness of:

   D := (x.dm pretend BasicType)

as a way to turn a member of the domain (SExpression?) into a Type given that the representation of x is:

   Record(dm: SExpression, ob: None)

Of course the "normal" use of pretend is to treat a member of one domain "as if" it was a member of another domain but in this case you are treating a member of a domain as if it was a member of a category, i.e. a domain. That is very cool!

In fact it's downright wonderful

truly types as first class values in SPAD.

I think your code ok since as I near as I can understand after some emails exchanged with Peter Broadbery #209 and in spite of nearly no documentation in interop.boot.pamphlet the Boot function:

   devaluate(domain)$Lisp

ensures that the domain will be representable as an Axiom SExpression?.

In fact, I doubt, that ANY should export equality at all. Is this functionality used anywhere? Similarly, should ANY support coercion to OUTFORM for any object?

Martin

You wrote:

  In fact, I doubt, that ANY should export equality at all.
  Is this functionality used anywhere?

Yes, for example in the domain Set(Any).

Are you familiar with the functions defined in the ANY1 package?

See also the page: DuckTyping?

As far as I can see, the only way apart from pretend to create an object of type ANY is via coerce$ANY1. So, I'd suggest that we modify ANY1 to accept only arguments that have SetCategory. If we want to support things that do not have equality, for example, we should create another domain, similar to ANY, that only has KOERCE OUTFORM, but I doubt that this is useful.

In any case, I like the Object implementation in the Aldor Compiler User Guide much better.

Martin

Does not seem to give much information about Object except:

  Description:

  'Object(C)' implements dynamic objects, pairing data values with associated domains.

and that it exports two functions:

  object :      (T: C, T) -> %  
    'object(T, t)', where the type of `t' is `T', creates on object of the domain.

  avail :       % -> (T: C, T)  

Can you say more about this domain and why you "like it much better"?

The idea behind Object is to wrap up an object together with its type. Thus, the operation object corresponds to coerce$ANY1, and avail is roughly dom and obj followed by retract$ANY1(dom), except that the latter won't work... I'd say that Object is rarely needed in Aldor.

I guess, one cannot easily write Object using SPAD, because of the lack of dependent types. I was probably too quick to say that I like Object much better. I should have said: I like dependent types much better...

Therefore I think we need to document and extend the domain Any in a manner consistent with the use of DuckTyping? in other modern programming languages.

"a file-like object can implement only methods it is able to, and consequently it can be only used in situations where it makes sense."

What does this have to do with ANY?

Apart from that, I did not propose to ban ANY. Only, I would very much like to have ANY1 accept only SetCategory instead of Type. This would make ANY "type-safe".