A micro Lisp interpreter experiment

Posted on 21 June 2014 in Articles • 4 min read

Let's define the language grammar and evaluation forms:

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list := (item0, item1, ...)
item := list | atom
atom := stringliteral|numliteral

The evaluation rules are similar to any Lisp: the first atom is a function, the rest - are the arguments:

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fn = list[0]
args = list[1:]

Notice that a list is written in a form of Python tuple. This is in a way a cheat which allows decreasing the interpreter's code dramatically (i.e. Python does the lexical and syntax analysis). Also note that the interpreter does not include any built-in operators, functions or special forms. They can all be created to extend the language separately.

Let's write some examples before jumping to the code of the interpreter and its extension functions:

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(quote, 1, 2, 3) ; >>> (1, 2, 3)
(plus, 1, 2, 3)  ; >>> 6
(inc, 10)        ; >>> 11

Allright, enough sentimental talk, let's get to the interpreter!

The micro Lisp interpreter

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def eval(list_or_atom):
    if isinstance(list_or_atom, tuple):
        fn, *fn_args = [eval(item) for item in list_or_atom]
        return fn(*fn_args)
    else:
        return list_or_atom

That is it! Here is how it works: First, we check whether the input is a list (Python tuple) or an atom. In case if it is an atom we return it immediately. Thus, eval(1) returns 1. If the argument is a tuple, we extract a function as its first element, and supply the rest elements as function arguments, recursively evaluating them in-place. Let's write various functions to extend this basic interpreter.

quote

Quoting is used to separate expressions from data in Lisp. For example, in Emacs-Lisp it is (quote 1 2 3), which is usually written via quotation prefix as '(1 2 3). Without quotation, Lisp will interprete this as a function call, where the first symbol (1) is a function name and 2 3 - are function arguments. Because we are limited by Python syntax, it is impossible to introduce Lisp-alike special quote forms, i.e. '(1 2 3). Thus, quote should be written as a function:

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def quote(*args):
    """Returns a list without evaluating it."""
    return tuple(args)

eval((quote, 'x', 3, 0.7))
>>> ('x', 3, 0.7)

Please be aware, that this is still a rudimentary quotation, which does not work correctly for quoted sub-lists. For example, in any Lisp the following evaluation takes places:

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'(1 2 '(3 4))
>>> (1 2 (quote 3 4))

However it evaluates to the following code in this mini-interpreter:

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(1, 2, (3, 4))

plus

Let's write a mathematical function. Usually the + operator is used in various Lisp dialects for summing, but we are still limited with Python's syntax, which would not allow writing (+, 2, 3).

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def plus(*args):
    """Sums up the input arguments."""
    return sum(args)

eval((plus, 3, 4, 5))
>>> 12

And here come two nice examples with recursion:

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eval((plus, 3, 4, (plus, 5, 6)))
>>> 18

eval((plus, (plus, 3, 4), (plus, 5, 6)))
>>> 18

apply

What happens if you try to plus a list, like (plus, (quote, 1, 2, 3))? The interpreter will crash because it will end up calling Python's sum as sum([(1, 2, 3), ]). A typical Lisp dialect deals with this problem via apply function:

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def apply(*args):
    """Applies a function to a list of arguments."""
    fn = args[0]
    fn_args = args[1]
    return fn(*fn_args)

eval((apply, plus, (quote, 1, 2, 3)))
>>> 6

map and inc

The map function takes another function and a list as input, applies the function to each element of this list and returns the results in a new list. For example: (map, inc, (quote, 1, 2, 3)) returns (2, 3, 4).

Here, inc - is a simple function which returns the value of it's argument + 1. For example, (inc, 10) returns 11.

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def map(*args):
    """Apply the function to each element of the list and return
       the results in a new list."""
    fn = args[0]
    fn_args = args[1]
    return tuple(fn(item) for item in fn_args)

def inc(arg):
    """Increases the argument by 1."""
    return arg + 1

eval((map, inc, (quote, 1, 2, 3)))
>> (2, 3, 4)

lambdas

I was looking for a nice way of writing lambdas without modifying the base interpreter. Unfortunately using the Python lambdas directly would require putting an explicit eval() in the lambda body, e.g.:

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eval((map, lambda x: (plus, x, 1), (quote, 1, 2, 3)))

Would not work because (plus, x, 1) is never evaluated. To make this work we have to write it as:

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eval((map, lambda x: eval(plus, x, 1), (quote, 1, 2, 3)))

which destroys the consistency of the syntax. Ruby code blocks would be indeed helpful here :)

I will stop extending the interpreter now. As you see the interpreter is not complete and it is quite primitive. But the aim of this article is to show another way of demonstrating and teaching recursion in Python through the beauty of Lisp :) I hope you enjoyed it! Looking forward for your comments and solutions!

Python Lisp programming