Functional Threading "Macros"

2 days ago

Copy Link

Threading macros in Common Lisp and Clojure improve code readability by showing the sequence of actions in order.
Threading macros are not easily implementable in non-Lisp languages, leading to the need for threading combinators.
Threading combinators involve functions that pass closures around, reversing the applicative evaluation order.
The post uses Lamber, a Lambda Calculus compiling language, to demonstrate threading combinators.
A pipe function is introduced to initiate piping by taking an initial value and a curried function.
The pipe function works by closing over a function and applying a continuation to it.
A piped terminator is used to return the passed data, acting as an identity function.
The implementation focuses on thread-last due to Lamber's tail-heavy function philosophy.
Thread-first and multi-arg combinators are left as exercises for the reader.

Hasty Briefsbeta