Crystal callback

[veelenga]

Would be nice to be able to write function callback in Crystal.

[veelenga]

Currently it is possible to do the following:

stack = Lua::Stack.new

proc = ->(state : LibLua::State) {
  puts LibLua.tonumberx(state, 1, nil)
  return 0
}

# push crystal proc onto the stack
LibLua.pushcclosure(stack.state, proc, 0)

# give it a name
LibLua.setglobal(stack.state, "crystal")

# call crystal function with an argument. 
stack.run "crystal(10)" #=> 10.0

stack.close

[zatherz]

Bump

[veelenga]

@zatherz sorry, I don't have so much time for this now. Will try to work on it during coming weeks. If you are able to prepare PR I would love to review/merge it ;) Any other help also appreciated...

[zatherz]

I was going to write a PR, but I'm not decided on the API. Should the proc receive a low level state like above or should it get an Array? Array of what? How should assigning it to a global work?

[veelenga]

Well, the example above is low level. For convenience lua.cr is designed to be more high level. The API I am thinking about is the following:

lua = Lua.load

# define a new crystal callback/function
lua.function "crystal_add" do |x, y|
  x + y
end

# use it in Lua
lua.eval %q{
  return 100 * crystal_add(3, 4)
} #=> 700.0

Here is the same that is written in a low-level manner:

lua = Lua.load

proc = ->(state : LibLua::State) {
  x = LibLua.tonumberx(state, 1, nil)
  y = LibLua.tonumberx(state, 2, nil)

  # push result to stack
  LibLua.pushnumber(state, x + y)

  1 # number of results
}

# push crystal proc onto the stack
LibLua.pushcclosure(lua.state, proc, 0)

# give it a name
LibLua.setglobal(lua.state, "crystal_add")

# call crystal function with arguments.
pp lua.run %q{
  return 100 * crystal_add(3.0, 4.0)
} #=> 700.0

lua.close

So, basically, to achieve this, you need to create new method function on Stack (via new mixin) that will accept the function name and a block and do the work from the low-level example:

1. Having the number of block arguments, fetch them from the stack.
2. Call the block with those arguments and save the result. Note that Crystal can return only one argument as a function/proc result.
3. Push result back onto the stack

[veelenga]

You can try to start and create PR on early stage, so we can discuss it if needed.

PS: I was highly inspired by ruby's version of this: rufus-lua. That may help you a lot.

Thanks for being interested in this project ;)

[zatherz]

What is the type of x and y in

lua.function "crystal_add" do |x, y|
  x + y
end

?

[veelenga]

Hm, that has to be (Bool | Float64 | Lua::Object | String | Nil), a union type returned while doing pop, so yes, it will require casting before doing +.

[zatherz]

That should be an alias, but with what name? Lua::Any? Maybe lua.function should look like this:

lua.function "crystal_add", Float64, Float64 do |x, y|
  x + y
end

?
This would ensure that the arguments have those types using the standard luaL_argcheck function, and would make binding to Crystal a lot easier.

[veelenga]

Yes, there is an alias for this, Lua::Type.

Regarding lua.function, good suggestion. I was thinking about similar approaches too. But might be hard to work with if there are lots of arguments. I think as the prototype it can be implemented without type checks and extended later. IMO this has to be easier to do...

[bew]

Maybe using the Proc notation like this would be interesting too:

lua.function "crystal_add", ->(x : Float64, y : Float64) do
  x + y
end

This would easily allow passing arbitrary procs like:

def foo(x)
  x + 1
end

lua.function "cr_foo", ->foo(Int32)

int = 42
lua.function "increment_int_from_lua", ->int.succ
lua.eval "increment_int_from_lua()"
puts int # => 43

[veelenga]

@bew good suggestion. I have to return to this and implement it ;) But if you are willing to work on it, do not hesitate to open a PR 😼

[bew]

looks like I need to use a macro to properly find arguments names & types of the passed proc, and properly generate the Lua proc (taking a Lua state, and working with that).

Maybe the API could look like:

def foo(x)
  x + 1
end

lua.function "cr_foo", Lua.make_function ->foo(Int32)

int = 42
lua_function_proc = Lua.make_function ->int.succ
lua.function "increment_int_from_lua", lua_function_proc
lua.eval "increment_int_from_lua()"
puts int # => 43

What do you think?

Edit: we'll need crystal-lang/crystal#5206 to be merged, to be able to inspect the ProcPointer (->foo) and ProcLiteral (->{ 1 }) nodes

[veelenga]

Sorry, I might need to look at it closer, but does it make sense to create Lua.make_function macro, if you can mix macro stuff in lua.function? So your first suggestion should also work:

lua.function "cr_foo", ->foo(Int32)

I am talking about it abstractly, so may be wrong.

BTW, why do you interested in this? I abandoned it a bit because haven't seen practical examples/usage...

[bew]

While you can use macros inside a function, you cannot access its arguments as AST nodes, and inspect the properties of these AST nodes, for example, here we need to get the Int32 in ->foo(Int32).

Given this simplified implementation:

def function(name, proc)
  lua_proc = ->(state : LibLua::State) do
    # /!\ --------> Not possible, as `proc` is nothing here in macro world
    {% for arg in proc.args %}
      # extract the argument from the stack, based on the type of `arg`
    {% end %}
    # call `proc` with the fetched arguments from the stack
    # put back the result in the stack
    1
  end

  # associate the lua_proc with a global name
  # etc..
end

That's why I think the macro is necessary.

BTW reply: nothing special, I just really like Lua, and found this project interesting for scripting inside a crystal app, and I think Lua deserve a cool library to run Lua scripts in Crystal 🌟

[veelenga]

That's correct. But I was just saying that function may be a macro instead.

[bew]

Ah that's not possible with current Crystal, as macros cannot be called on instances (for good IMO), so lua.function cannot be a macro, only a method. Macros can only be called in top level, in a namespace (module or class) or preceded by its namepace (like Some::Path.some_macro)

[shayneoneill]

Was any progress made on this? I've got a pretty important use for it, and the Proc stuffs a bit goofy

[veelenga]

@shayneoneill no progress. And I can't promise you it will be done in the nearest future.

[jwoertink]

I just pushed up a WIP PR for this. I don't really know what I'm doing, but if anyone wants to take a look and give a little guidance, I'll fix it up. 😄