Perl 6 allows us to define classes and roles and grammars, and they all look much the same.

class C { method foo { ... } method bar { ... } } role R { method foo { ... } method bar { ... } } grammar G { regex foo { ... } token bar { ... } }

The similarities don't just exist on the surface; all these three OO-style packages get parsed with the same rule ( package_declarator ) in the Perl6 grammar, and their insides get parsed with the same rule ( package_def ). The only difference is the metaclass object handed to each one. ("What's a metaclass?" you might ask. If you are, I recommend this post by jnthn++.)

So classes get handed a ClassHOW , roles a RoleHOW , and grammars a GrammarHOW . And that's basically how they differ. In theory, if we wanted to give (Rakudo) Perl 6 a bigger repertoire of OO-style package declarators, all we have to do is add a few rules to the Perl 6 grammar, and add a new SomethingHOW metaclass.

The operative phrase being "in theory". See, no-one has ever done this, and whereas things are designed for people eventually being able to do that. Right now, you're advised to sit back and wait while some foolhardy person gets a thousand small cuts and bruises trying to make it all work without a hitch.

That's where I come in.

The new syntax

This is going to look almost trivial. Well, it is trivial to describe. One day it'll be trivial to get to work in Rakudo as well. Here's the new syntax:

diagram D { element foo { ... } element bar { ... } }

Hm; actually, I have a full-blown example of the diagram DSL, that I might as well show at this point.

class Page { has Str $.style = 'fill: #333333'; } class Book { has Str $.abbreviation; has Str $.name; has Str $.author; has Str $.year; has Page @.pages; } diagram BookLayout { element LAYOUT { <booktable> on <attribution> } element booktable { table(<book> from .books, :4columns) } element book { .abbreviation on table(<page> from .pages, :10columns) } element page { <rect width="1" height="2" style="{.style}"> } element attribution { vline on "SOURCE BOOKS" on table(<source> from .books, :2columns, :down) } element source { .name on "by $_.author, $_.year" } } my Book @books = ...; BookLayout.render(:@books);

The above example was written to produce something very much like the third image over at One book, many readings. (Here's a direct link to the image.) Compare the elements in that image and the element s in the BookLayout diagram, and you'll see the similarities.

The final line, BookLayout.render(:@books); , would spit out a string full of SVG, or some other scene description format. The array @book would contain 12 Book objects corresponding to the 12 books in the image.

Anyway, I thought this was a nice idea. It's certainly the best idea for a non-core extension to Perl 6 that I've been able to think up so far. The syntax of the element blocks is reminiscent of Perl 6 regex syntax, but the process is almost a reverse of the one for regexes: whereas a grammar does a complicated dance over a string of text and eventually produces an object hierarchy (a parse tree), a diagram does a complicated dance over an object hierarchy (in this case, a set of Book s with sets of Page s) and produces an image.

Did I get Rakudo to parse my new syntax? Yes, I did. Here's how to do it.

Adding a new package declarator

I wanted to add the package declarator diagram and hook it up with a metaclass DiagramHOW . So I added these rules to src/Perl6/Grammar.pm :

%*HOW<module> := 'none'; %*HOW<class> := 'ClassHOW'; %*HOW<grammar> := 'GrammarHOW'; + %*HOW<diagram> := 'DiagramHOW'; %*HOW<role> := 'RoleHOW'; my %*PKGCOMPILER; %*PKGCOMPILER<role> := Perl6::Compiler::Role; <sym> :my $*PKGDECL := 'grammar'; <package_def> } +token package_declarator:sym<diagram> { + <sym> :my $*PKGDECL := 'diagram'; + <package_def> +} token package_declarator:sym<role> { <sym> :my $*PKGDECL := 'role'; <package_def>

GrammarHOW is defined in src/metamodel/GrammarHOW.pir . I just took that file, replaced every occurrence of Grammar with Diagram , and saved the result as src/metamodel/DiagramHOW.pir . Since GrammarHOW.pir made reference to a Grammar class in src/core/Grammar.pm , I created a Diagram class and saved it in src/core/Diagram.pm .

In src/Perl6/Actions.pm I had to make a corresponding addition:

method package_declarator:sym<module>($/) { make $<package_def>.ast; } method package_declarator:sym<class>($/) { make $<package_def>.ast; } method package_declarator:sym<grammar>($/) { make $<package_def>.ast; } +method package_declarator:sym<diagram>($/) { make $<package_def>.ast; } method package_declarator:sym<role>($/) { make $<package_def>.ast; } method package_declarator:sym<does>($/) {

Usually when I made a false step and got an internal error (not shown here), it was because I had neglected to add something to src/Perl6/Actions.pm .

Adding the element declarator

Adding this to src/Perl6/Grammar.pm :

token term:sym<routine_declarator> { <routine_declarator> } token term:sym<multi_declarator> { <?before 'multi'|'proto'|'only'> <multi_declarator> } token term:sym<regex_declarator> { <regex_declarator> } +token term:sym<element_declarator> { <element_declarator> } token term:sym<circumfix> { <circumfix> } token term:sym<statement_prefix> { <statement_prefix> } token term:sym<**> { <sym> <.panic('HyperWhatever (**) not | '(' ~ ')' <signature> <trait>* | <routine_declarator> | <regex_declarator> + | <element_declarator> | <type_declarator> ] } +proto token element_declarator { <...> } +token element_declarator:sym<element> { + <sym> {*} #= open + :my $*METHODTYPE := 'regex'; + <element_def> +} +rule element_def { + [ + { $*IN_DECL := '' } + <deflongname>? + <.newpad> + [ [ ':'?'(' <signature> ')'] | <trait> ]* + {*} #= open + '{'[ '<...>' |<p6regex=.LANG('Regex','nibbler')>]'}'<?ENDSTMT> + ] || <.panic: "Malformed element"> +}

And this to src/Perl6/Actions.pm :

if $<variable_declarator> { make $<variable_declarator>.ast } elsif $<routine_declarator> { make $<routine_declarator>.ast } elsif $<regex_declarator> { make $<regex_declarator>.ast } + elsif $<element_declarator> { make $<element_declarator>.ast } elsif $<signature> { my $list := PAST::Op.new( :pasttype('call'), :name('&infix:<,>') ); my $decls := $<signature>.ast.get_declarations; +method element_declarator:sym<element>($/, $key?) { + if ($key) { + my %h; + %REGEX_MODIFIERS := %h; + } else { + make $<element_def>.ast; + } +} +method element_def($/, $key?) { + make PAST::Stmts.new(); +} +class Perl6::DiagramActions { +} +

At this point, element declarations just called into the normal regex sublanguage. Needed to change this as a final step.

Adding the Perl6::Diagram sublanguage

Finally, we make these changes to src/Perl6/Grammar.pm :

my %*LANG; %*LANG<Regex> := Perl6::Regex; %*LANG<Regex-actions> := Perl6::RegexActions; + %*LANG<Diagram> := Perl6::Diagram; + %*LANG<Diagram-actions> := Perl6::DiagramActions; %*LANG<MAIN> := Perl6::Grammar; %*LANG<MAIN-actions> := Perl6::Actions; - '{'[ '<...>' |<p6regex=.LANG('Regex','nibbler')>]'}'<?ENDSTMT> + '{'[ '<...>' |<p6regex=.LANG('Diagram','expr')>]'}'<?ENDSTMT> +grammar Perl6::Diagram is HLL::Grammar { + rule expr { <thing> ** 'on' } + + token thing { + [ + | <quote> + | <attribute> + | <call> + | 'vline' + | :s 'table(' <expr> [',' ':'\d*<identifier> ]* ')' + ] + } + + token quote { + [ + | <?[']> <quote_EXPR: ':q'> + | <?["]> <quote_EXPR: ':qq'> + ] + } + + token call { + '<' <identifier> + [ + | '>' :s [from <attribute>]? + | :s [ <identifier> '=' <quote>]* '>' + ] + } + + token identifier { <.ident> [ <[\-']> <.ident> ]* } + + token attribute { '.'<.identifier> } +}

The above grammar parses my BookLayout example above. I guess the cool thing isn't that it does, but that it parses it inside a regular Perl 6 script. That's what this was all about, after all. The technology is there in Rakudo; it's just not user-accessible yet.

Simple as that, eh?

Doing this today is not easy. I stumbled upon maybe ten types of internal error along the way, about half of which I never managed to diagnose, but simply got rid of by doing things again, more slowly.

Summarizing the situation:

Yes, extending the syntax is possible. It's not particularly easy. That's just because the Perl 6 vision isn't fully implemented yet. But there is a roadmap, and we're sticking to it.

None of the internals hacking will be needed once this works the real way. I'll still have to modify the grammar and the actions, and I'll still have to add a DiagramHOW metaclass, but I'll do it from the safety of a perl script or a module, not by prying open the Rakudo source files.

I'm sure there's a whole heap of errors that could be removed or improved here. Problem is, my usual instinct for submitting bugs gets put on hold when I'm doing naughty things like internals hacking. What would I report it as? "[BUG] Nasty error message after applying this patch to Rakudo"? Somehow that doesn't feel right.

After getting diagrams to parse, I have no idea whatsoever how to give them the right semantics. What grammars do is to emit the regexes as specialized PAST nodes. There are no specialized PAST nodes for diagrams.

Looking forward to seeing this get much easier over time.