Are you looking for `let/ec`?

(let/ec return
  (define x (random 10))
  (unless (even? x)
    (log-info "x wasn't even, x = ~a" x)
    (return -1))
  (define y (random 10))
  (unless (even? y)
    (log-info "y wasn't even, y = ~a" y)
    (return -1))
  (+ x y))

Alex.

On Wednesday, October 28, 2020 at 6:54:44 PM UTC+8 jackh...@gmail.com wrote:

> So I'm a little tired of writing code like this:
>
> (define x ...)
> (cond
>   [(take-shortcut? x) (shortcut x)]
>   [else
>    (define y (compute-y x))
>    (cond
>     [(take-other-shortcut? x y) (other-shortcut x y)]
>     [else
>      (define z ...)
>      (cond ...)])])
>
> That is, I have some logic and that logic occasionally checks for 
> conditions that make the rest of the logic irrelevant, such as an empty or 
> false input or something else that should trigger an early exit. Each check 
> like this requires me to write a cond whose else clause wraps the 
> remainder of the body, leading to an awkward nesting of cond forms. I 
> don't have this issue when the early exits involve raising exceptions: in 
> those cases I can just use when and unless like so:
>
> (define x ...)
> (unless (passes-check? x) (raise ...))
> (define y ...)
> (unless (passes-other-check? x y) (raise ...))
> (define z ...)
> ...
>
> I'm aware of a few macros in the racket ecosystem that try to solve this 
> problem. For example, Jay wrote a blog post 
> <http://jeapostrophe.github.io/2013-11-12-condd-post.html> that creates a 
> condd form that's like cond but allows embedded definitions using a #:do 
> keyword. I've also seen various approaches that use escape continuations to 
> implement the early exit. There's drawbacks I'm not happy about however:
>
>    - 
>    
>    For cond-like macros that allow embedded definitions, it looks too 
>    different from regular straight-line Racket code. I like my function 
> bodies 
>    to be a sequence of definitions and expressions, with minimal nesting, 
> just 
>    like the when and unless version above. I don't have to use a keyword 
>    or extra parentheses to signal whether a form is a definition or a when 
>    / unless check in error-raising code, why should I have to do that in 
>    code that uses early returns?
>    - 
>    
>    Continuation-based solutions impose a nontrivial performance penalty 
>    and have complex semantics. I don't like that the generated code behaves 
>    differently from the cond tree I would normally write. What happens if 
>    I stick an early exit inside a lambda? Or a thread? What if I set up a 
>    continuation barrier? Does that matter? I don't know and I don't want to 
>    think about that just to write what would be a simple if (condition) { 
>    return ... } block in other languages.
>    
> So I wrote a basic macro for this and I have some questions about how to 
> make it more robust. The macro is called guarded-block and it looks like 
> this:
>
> (guarded-block
>   (define x (random 10))
>   (guard (even? x) else
>     (log-info "x wasn't even, x = ~a" x)
>     -1)
>   (define y (random 10))
>   (guard (even? y) else
>     (log-info "y wasn't even, y = ~a" y)
>     -1)
>   (+ x y))
>
> Each guard clause contains a condition that must be true for evaluation 
> to proceed, and if it isn't true the block takes the else branch and 
> finishes. So the above would expand into this:
>
> (block
>   (define x (random 10))
>   (cond
>     [(not (even? x))
>      (log-info "x wasn't even, x = ~a" x)
>      -1]
>     [else
>      (define y (random 10))
>      (cond
>        [(not (even? y))
>         (log-info "y wasn't even, y = ~a" y)
>         -1]
>        [else (+ x y)])]))
>
> This part I got working pretty easily. Where I hit problems, and where I'd 
> like some help, is trying to extend this to support two important features:
>
>    - 
>    
>    I should be able to define macros that *expand* into guard clauses. 
>    This is important because I want to implement a (guard-match <pattern> 
>    <expression> else <failure-body> ...) form that's like match-define 
>    but with an early exit if the pattern match fails. I'd also really like to 
>    add a simple (guard-define <id> <option-expression> else 
>    <failure-body> ...) form that expects option-expression to produce an 
>    option 
>    
> <https://gist.github.com/jackfirth/docs.racket-lang.org/rebellion/Option_Values.html>
>  
>    (a value that is either (present v) or absent) and tries to unwrap it, 
>    like the guard let construct in Swift 
>    <https://www.hackingwithswift.com/sixty/10/3/unwrapping-with-guard>.
>    - 
>    
>    Begin splicing. The begin form should splice guard statements into the 
>    surrounding body. This is really an offshoot of the first requirement, 
>    since implementing macros that expand to guard can involve expanding 
>    into code like (begin (define some-temp-value ...) (guard ...) (define 
>    some-result ...)).
>    
> Having been around the Racket macro block before, I know I need to do some 
> kind of partial expansion here. But honestly I can't figure out how to use 
> local-expand, syntax-local-context, syntax-local-make-definition-context, 
> and the zoo of related tools. Can someone point me to some existing macros 
> that implement similar behavior? Or does anyone have general advice about 
> what to do here? I'm happy to share more examples of use cases I have for 
> guarded-block if that helps.
>

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