Symbol Registration
Richard Andrew Cattermole (Rikki)
richard at cattermole.co.nz
Wed Sep 25 17:09:04 UTC 2024
For a long time now (~10 years), I've wanted a cheap way of
registering symbols for frameworks to operate on. Existing
registration schemes are expensive, and slow. They usually
require some effort on the programmer to make happen, not ideal.
A solution to this can be seen in ``ModuleInfo`` and
``xgetmembers``, have the compiler perform the registration of a
symbol transformed into a descriptor list that then can be used
to do stuff with at runtime.
However existing methods are not geared up to be used by a
library writer for registration of custom data, this proposal
offers a way to do this registration cleanly and effortlessly by
the user. So they can focus on their goal rather than the how.
In this design, UDA's trigger registration of a symbol, but this
UDA must first have an attribute specific to the list placed upon
it.
In core.attributes the following mixin template implements the
list mechanism.
```d
mixin template ListOfSymbolState(SymbolState, alias
SymbolTransformation) {
private MySymbolState/* ... */ symbolStates;
enum Attribute;
ptrdiff_t length();
int opApply(scope int delegate(immutable ref SymbolState)
@safe nothrow @nogc) @safe nothrow @nogc;
}
```
To use it as a library writer:
```d
module library.registration;
@mySymbolStates.Attribute
struct Route {
string path;
}
mixin ListOfSymbolState!(MySymbolState, MySymbolTransformation)
mySymbolStates;
package(library):
struct MySymbolState {
string fqn, name;
}
template MySymbolTransformation(alias symbol) {
enum MySymbolTransformation =
MySymbolstate(__traits(fullyQualifiedName, symbol),
__traits(identifier, symbol));
}
```
By the user:
```d
import library.registration;
@Route("/")
void myRoute() {
}
```
When the enum ``Attribute`` in ``ListOfSymbolState`` is placed
upon a symbol, that symbol when used as a UDA will trigger
registration.
Registration is done on a symbol, that is then transformed using
``SymbolTransformation`` a template, that results in a value of
``SymbolState`` which must be a struct.
A ``SymbolState`` is stored in a list ``symbolStates`` that
external code does not have direct access to.
The list is compiler and linker defined sequence of elements.
Common strategies for this are linked lists and section
appending. Due to the possibility of moving by the loader, no
interior pointers are allowed in ``SymbolState`` or to an element.
Exportation of the list is compiler and platform defined, assume
that it is not exported, and each binary must be registered
separately. See dub's ``injectSourceFiles`` directive for how to
do this.
This will enable deserialization, orm's, web routes, game logic,
GUI controls, to self register.
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