Re: Some nim builtin libs not doing enough error checking?
I focused on "does not exist" here, but it could be any other error reported by C/the OS that results in a nil result - eg, IO/hardware error, permissions error reading the dir, etc.
Some nim builtin libs not doing enough error checking?
eg, this code:
import os
for p in walkDir("/tmpX"):
echo p
echo "Hello"
Run
If the directory /tmpX does not exist, then control flow just passes on to
after the loop, rather than raising an exception about "directory not found".
In the nim code os.nim, for 0.19.2, around line 866, there's a call to opendir,
and then logic proceeds if the returned pointer is not nil (ie, there wasn't an
error.
But there's no branch in that code that handles the nil condition, gets the C
error, raises, etc.
It's possible to eg, make a PR which adds the C error check, and then raises an
exception. But that would break existing systems that depend on walkDir's
current permissiveness. Also, with Nim 1.0 being just around the corner.
I'm picking on walkDir here, but I have seen this in some other places.
Would it be more correct to eg, update documentation for walkDir to state that
by design it's not intended to? Similar to how eg, removeDir is documented as
not raising an exception if the directory never existed originally?
Re: Equivalent of dir() in python
I've learned a bit more since then (now also on last chapter of Nim in Action. Templates and Macros are also starting to make more sense). Also a bit of a better idea of the fine line between where metaprogramming vs actual compiler internals lie, where you can and can't cross the two. Probably you'd need to make a nim compiler plugin (this is how "locals()" is implemented). I think this concept is similar to rust's "syntax extensions". Relevant previous forum thread on the subject (it's not really documented anywhere that I can see as a type of Nim metaprogramming): [https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/1220](https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/1220) So for instance, it's _[probably](https://forum.nim-lang.org/postActivity.xml#probably) possible to crossreference this: compiler/plugins/locals.nim Alongside the nimsuggest source code (included in Nim github repo) And add something like these new plugins, to get something a bit more pythonish: compiler/plugins/globals.nim compiler/plugins/dir.nim
Re: Equivalent of dir() in python
Is it possible to use metaprogramming to iterate through all of the available procs, and then return them as a list or tuple at runtime? I think this is how both "locals()" and "repr()" already work in Nim.
Re: Using the MEGA API
I'm not sure, but you may be able to achieve this (overriding virtual C++ functions) by some ugly emission of raw c++ code. Here's an example: [https://nim-lang.org/docs/manual.html#implementation-specific-pragmas-importcpp-pragma](https://nim-lang.org/docs/manual.html#implementation-specific-pragmas-importcpp-pragma)
Re: is there computer algebra system module?
Sounds cool. Add an issue over to the "needed packages" repo? [https://github.com/nim-lang/needed-libraries](https://github.com/nim-lang/needed-libraries)
Re: Question regarding parallel_counts.nim from Nim in Action
Thanks, good to know! Can we document spawn as having blocking behavior in that case?
Question regarding parallel_counts.nim from Nim in Action
As per this file referred to in Chapter 6: [https://github.com/dom96/nim-in-action-code/blob/master/Chapter6/WikipediaStats/parallel_counts.nim](https://github.com/dom96/nim-in-action-code/blob/master/Chapter6/WikipediaStats/parallel_counts.nim) Isn't this kind of a race between how fast the disk can read the file, and how fast the CPU threads can process it? eg, with a huge file, slow CPUs, fast IO, low RAM, the system can run out of ram because of too many separate threads being in the middle of the parseChunk() function, where each thread is hanging onto at least 1_000_000 bytes of ram? Or does something special happen (eg, "spawn" function starts blocking) when the # of spawned functions reaches MaxThreadPoolSize (256).
Re: Is there any way to create template with await?
Nim's 'async' macro rewrites the code so that it becomes iterable/etc where needed. [https://nim-lang.org/docs/asyncdispatch.html#17](https://nim-lang.org/docs/asyncdispatch.html#17) I think what Dom's doing here is giving a slightly desugared version of what the 'async' macro would normally do for your code.
Re: Partial casing is foo_bar
Thanks, interesting alias syntax! Also, there's some nice syntax for aliasing over in the issue tracker over here: [https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/7090](https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/7090) Edit: Have also requested that this be added to the Nim Cookbook: [https://github.com/btbytes/nim-cookbook/issues/21](https://github.com/btbytes/nim-cookbook/issues/21)
Re: Nim Syntax ''Skins''
How about Racket-style #lang pragmas? That way you can use any syntax or semantics you want in a given module, so long as your "lang" definition contains a parser
Re: Partial casing is foo_bar
Besides OpenGL, there's also SDL2, which can't be faithfully represented because of partial casing, eg SdlError enum, vs say SDL_Error. On the other hand, recently working with Ada, I see there's a lot of case insensitivity there too, which is a point in it's favor: [https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Programming/Lexical_elements#Character_set](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Programming/Lexical_elements#Character_set) On the gripping hand, I'd really like to be able to eg, go through C tutorials on C libs, without having to - while going through those tuts and docs - also rename a lot of identifiers over to the renamed Nim versions that wrap those lower level C libraries.
VS Code integration is great
Hi there! I've tried getting minimal IDE-type setups working for a lot of langs recently. They more or less work, but don't have working features like "jump to definition" (especially into the standard lib), or are otherwise really hard to get working and configured right. This is helped a lot by the fact that the nim stdlib is also in Nim, and very easy to read and understand, vs many other langs, where things can get far more cryptic in the stdlibs. Just a shoutout to nimsuggest and it's great integration with VS Code.
Borrowing ideas from Ada (2012)?
Have opened a ticket on github with a related feature request: [https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/7122](https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/7122) But also bringing it up on the forum for possible further discussion. Anyhow, I'm a big "high integrity"-type fanboy. I don't program in Ada (yet), but I'm really enthusiastic about it. Nim already seems to borrow many features from Ada (I think Araq's even mentioned this before, I think it was something like providing Ada, but being blamed for C's shortcomings). Anyhow, I figure it's a really nice idea to scavenge some ideas off of Ada 2012. Partly to help bring that kind of set of secure (or more importantly, high integrity/reliability) practices more to the mainstream (also, some further distinguishing of Nim vs other more mainstream langs than Ada). We probably won't ever get to the level of "SPARK"-type static analysis, but base Ada alone, is I think leagues ahead of just about every other lang. (implied here, also an ideas like making "contract programming" libs, like NimContracts, part of the stdlib, or having floating-point range types, etc), as well as being able to promote Nim as having a focus on security/high integrity. Thoughts on this?
Re: Best way for function aliases
Looks like this also works (might not have worked then, but it works with current Nim devel): proc foo(x: int) = echo x template bar(x) = echo x bar 10 And similarly (for future readers), this kind of usage also works, for non-procs: var a = 200 var b = addr a b[] = 300 echo a Though it's not entirely safe.
Re: How to get real time of parallel code
https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues
Re: How to get real time of parallel code
I've made an issue request for this on the Nim Cookbook project @jzakiya; open a feature request ticket against the nim github repo?
Re: How to track down missing nimcache/read.o ?
Deleting the nimcache directory also works. "There are 2 hard problems in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-1 errors." \- secretGeek
Re: How do you keep your motivation on your open-source projects
Just working on things when I feel like it or need to, for solving some other problem that I'm excited or motivated about
Re: Send data structures between threads?
I don't understand it, but nice Have added an issue on the Nim Cookbook for this to be added there.
Re: possible compiler bug with generics?
Or at least, I think that's probably a fundamental underlying model. There's a lot of higher level clever things that Nim does before getting to separate C files, I think separate .c units is just an optimisation not a restriction, but that it did to some extent shape how the Nim compiler logic worked during development. Nim probably just needs to be taught to be able to treat "let x = 5.Foo" and "let x = 5.toFoo" the same way, rather the base case of how separate C compilation works. In which case, types.o in the not-working version still wouldn't export any (proc) symbols, but lib.c would know that it was dealing with an int. I think it might be something like a small bug or limit on the type inference, where technically it could infer something, but it's not yet able to. Well, basically I think it's something like there's no huge formally unifying theory behind how the entire Nim lang semantics should work for a given lang ver (eg, something like a lang report spec made by committee); but rather it's something that's defined by what the most recent compiler supports, as well as Araqs insights over time.
Re: possible compiler bug with generics?
I checked things a bit. I _think_ it's an artifact of Nim code compiling each nim file into a separate .c file. After that point the regular C toolchain takes over. c gets compiled to .so, and then .so files get compiled to the final binary. Anyhow, at the .so level, there's some symbols exported; mainly for things like global variables, or for (non-generic) functions. But nothing like C structures. The .so files are already 99% machine code by that point. So anyhow, in the working version, the .so file for types.nim has got an exported link symbol for "toFoo" that takes an int and returns an int. In the not-working symbol, there's no link symbols that can be exported. ie, there's no useful .so file that could be produced directly from types.nim So anyhow, that kind of C compilation semantic probably gets reflected in how Nim does parsing of things like generics, to be able to compile the .nim files separately to C, and then link them together again to get to the final binary. I think it's something like that, anyhow. Probably the compiler could be updated so that it follows rules that aren't constrained by the C compiling and linking process. But that would probably also make compilation take a lot longer; something like whole-program type inference would need to take place, or something like that.
Re: testing private methods in external module
I'm pretty clueless in general with Nim, but don't you always put curley brace pragmas just before the equals sign, rather than in some other place? (I can't think of any exceptions to this in the code I've seen so far).
Re: VS Code: Compiled Nim program
I work with VS code for Nim, but how I (and I'm guessing a lot of Nim users work) usually compile and execute the apps in a separate command-line (ie, what editor or IDE you're using doesn't affect your dev and testing). Just a total random thumbsuck, but it may be some interaction with "nimsuggest" that can cause this problem? Try disabling the Nim-specific addons in VS Code (or just disabling nimsuggest) and see if that makes a difference?
Re: Nim discord server
Hmm - what segment of the Nim community would this be for? I haven't used it, but isn't Discord mainly for gamers (basically, text message or voice)? So that's also assuming that people are online at the exact same time, while playing a given multiplayer game. What kind of advantage would this provide over how the Nim community currently uses IRC?
Re: Wrapping cpp type with integer parameters
I'm pretty clueless here, but just some 2c. How well is this handled in other non-C++ langs or tools which do have interop with C++? Some examples that come to mind: D lang, Python with pybind11, and SWIG. And a couple of other usual things - providing a C extern function from C++ that somehow gets the job done, or using the Nim "emit" statement at strategic places to get needed C++ interop code. Or reversing things - write the app mainly in C++, but take advantage of Nim lang as far as possible (eg, CPP codegen from Nim (or direct .so/dll files), which then gets pulled into the C++ compilation, but only where that works, and use native C++ for the rest - eg I'm reminded about how Chucklefish uses Rust for most of their code for Spellbound, but then uses console-specific code like C++ to call into the Rust logic). It sounds like none of these would work (based on comments in this thread), but I'm mainly curious about why none of these are feasible
Re: possible compiler bug with generics?
I think that's just normal Nim behavior, right? If module A imports module B, and module B imports module C, then module A won't automatically see everything that B imported that was able to let B compile? You could probably solve the probly by either: 1\. Import types.nim in bug.nim, to bring Foo into scope. 2\. Use an export statement in lib.nim, for Foo It's probably also possible for tne Nim compiler to automatically do some kind of export/import so that bug.nim can - while importing lib.nim, also "see" the required types from "types.nim"; at least to the extent so that bug.nim could typecheck correctly.
Re: Winim Excel
Congrats on finding that. I'm not sure, but I get several results if I google for "Component Object Model Excel.Application" Another way to put it - I think you'll have some success if you try to make a Windows app (eg: VB.net, VBscript, C#, etc, whatever you know best) that uses the "Excel.Application" COM API directly, and then see if that maps back well to the Nim library.
Re: Is this use of Nim locks correct?
Ah, also a reminder - try nimgrep in addition to regular grep: [https://nim-lang.org/docs/nimgrep.html](https://nim-lang.org/docs/nimgrep.html) Nim's style insensitivity means that you may miss a few useful things if you just use the regular grep.
Re: Nim Wiki stuff
Cool . Also at your suggestion I made a pull request for adding the Wiki the main website. With some luck that should show up at the bottom of this page sometime in the near future: [https://nim-lang.org/community.html](https://nim-lang.org/community.html)
Re: Is this use of Nim locks correct?
I think "memoryReadBarrier" was just an example.
One way you can get more info is to do a git clone of the source code, and then
grep for where memoryReadBarrier occurs, for instance:
$ grep memoryReadBarrier * -R
doc/manual/locking.txt: memoryReadBarrier()
Grepping for "atomicRead" shows a few more examples, over in the tests:
$ grep atomicRead * -R
doc/manual/locking.txt: template atomicRead(x): untyped =
doc/manual/locking.txt: echo atomicRead(atomicCounter)
tests/parallel/tguard1.nim:template atomicRead(L, x): untyped =
tests/parallel/tguard1.nim: echo(atomicRead(c.L, c.i))
tests/parallel/tguard2.nim:template atomicRead(L, x): untyped =
tests/parallel/tguard2.nim: echo(atomicRead(c.L, c.i))
Nim also seems to have some kind of concept of volatile, too, if I grep for
that:
david@david-pc:~/dev/learning/nim/github/Nim$ grep volatile * -R | grep -v
'c'
lib/pure/volatile.nim:template volatileStore*[T](dest: ptr T, val: T) =
lib/pure/volatile.nim:{.emit: ["*((", type(dest[]), " volatile*)(",
dest, ")) = ", val, ";"].}
lib/system/threads.nim:var x {.volatile.}: pointer
lib/js/jsffi.nim:"volatile", "null", "true", "false"]
In particular, this builtin lib may be interesting to you:
lib/pure/volatile.nim
And here's one main lib I can find at the moment that deals with atomics:
lib/system/atomics.nim
Re: using if expressions
I ninja-edited my earlier post with some other details. I'm not sure why, but 'case expressions' and 'if expressions' are designed a bit differently to each other, and are documented that way. I think perhaps it's something like "things that can be an expression" are mainly some specific special cases, and "case expressions" got more love than "if expressions". Try submitting a feature request over on the issue tracker perhaps? [https://github.com/nim-lang/nim/issues](https://github.com/nim-lang/nim/issues)
Re: using if expressions
>From some playing around with it, I think that the entire case structure needs >to be an expression, rather than a mix of statements and expressions. eg, an echo statement anywhere in there seems to cause problems. However, something that does seem to work is to call a function which returns the expected type; and then inside that function, do the echoing. I think though that what you're trying to do should be valid, according to the docs: [https://nim-lang.org/docs/manual.html#statements-and-expressions-case-expression](https://nim-lang.org/docs/manual.html#statements-and-expressions-case-expression) Not sure, but I think it's a compiler bug.
Re: I enjoy seeing the nimble package updates
I got pointed to our existing Wiki; I didn't know that it existed So anyhow; I've made a new forum topic for that over here: [https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/3282](https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/3282)
Re: progress while binding libxl
May be better to try to make your own really basic wrapper in the meanwhile, and put that in github For some ideas and inspiration you can watch the "c2nim" section of Araq's 2 hour Nim Workshop YouTube vid
Re: I enjoy seeing the nimble package updates
Ah thanks, that looks really nice, too!.
Re: I enjoy seeing the nimble package updates
Not sure how practical it is or if it's against Github's TOS in some ways, but here's one example of something that would be easy to scrape and parse: [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bpr/vla/master/vla.nimble](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bpr/vla/master/vla.nimble)
I enjoy seeing the nimble package updates
Mainly over in the in the packages.json file, over here: [https://github.com/nim-lang/packages/commits/master](https://github.com/nim-lang/packages/commits/master) It's really fun watching what kinds of packages get added in there over time. I check it out every couple of days, and then usually check out the links to the project home page. That might make for something like a nice main page feed too. Or especially if there's some way to also keep track of version bumps by automatically following the github repos and seeing when the version number in the ".nimble" file changes, and then adding that to a main page feed. In the same way; it's also fun to watch other lang's "package releases" changelogs; eg for PyPi main page: [https://pypi.python.org/pypi](https://pypi.python.org/pypi)
Re: progress while binding libxl
@alfrednewman It might be possible to wrap a Python XLS library in Nim?. It's an approach I'm considering for some python libs I'm having trouble porting to Nim due to my lack of low-level C coding ability - eg Pyglet. It's not entirely unprecedented, Haskell also wraps some awesome python libs to bring some of that magic into their ecosystem: [https://hackage.haskell.org/package/matplotlib](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/matplotlib)
Re: object problem - undeclared identifier
Here's one nice use of methods vs procs in Nim that I've seen recently: [https://vladar4.github.io/nimgame2/tut101_bounce.html](https://vladar4.github.io/nimgame2/tut101_bounce.html)
Re: nim-cookbook
Update: Looks like I can't delete the wiki directly! (I think this is for good reason; on a case by case basis - so that eg, rogue admins can't take their community hostage or whatever). Have made an official request to wikia to delete it, opening ticket #349088 on their system. It should hopefully be deleted within 2 business days. Wikia wiki is currently over here, but should hopefully disappear soon: [http://nim-lang.wikia.com/wiki/The_Nim_programming_language_Wiki](http://nim-lang.wikia.com/wiki/The_Nim_programming_language_Wiki)
Re: nim-cookbook
Hmm, then I'll put that on hold for now Already created the wikia, but I'll see if I can nuke it.
Re: nim-cookbook
Ideally: One of the core devs puts a mediawiki instance under the nim-lang.org server. But failing that, Wikia is a very nice place for starting and maintaining community wikis, eg: [http://bleach.wikia.com/wiki/Bleach_Wiki](http://bleach.wikia.com/wiki/Bleach_Wiki) Edit: Should I take initiative and start it myself? I don't want to steal anyone's thunder, or do something that's too controvercial amongst the Nim community
Re: Beginner question about nil access
Some things I _really_ like here about nim vs many other proglangs. 1\. Nil access actually segfaults, rather than silent or undefined behavior. 2\. You get a really awesome stack trace. I use "not nil" wherever I can, too, but it's kind of a losing battle, since all the other code wants nillable types, so you have to add a lot of converters/checking code/etc, which kinda defeats the purpose
Re: What should next Araq's live stream be about?
Really really cool idea; I'm planning to watch all the livestreams; at least once they hit youtube . I've subscribed to both Araq's and Dom's channels on there! Is there a suitable place for adding suggestions for future live streaming subjects? Is that best brought up in IRC perhaps? (have never been on there; I'm more of a forum dweller).
Re: nim-cookbook
Any chance we could do this on a regular wiki, rather than needing to make github pull requests? eg like this: [https://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/doc/cookbook/Cookbook](https://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/doc/cookbook/Cookbook) .
Re: Pragma for temporarily making strict identifier names?
Thanks for the replies! What I've also done in the past to bypass Nim's naming rules - eg, where and how you can use underscores, is to look for a utf8 unicode symbol that looks almost exactly like what I want to use. eg in a direct transliteration of some python code: self._private = 123 Nim doesn't like the leading _ in _private, but I can search on a page like this: [http://csbruce.com/software/utf-8.html](http://csbruce.com/software/utf-8.html) And then eg, use an identifier like this (for instance), which Nim is fine with: self.⎯private = 123 Where ⎯ comes from the "u23A0" section. So I could also - probably - as a horrible hack, use a replacement for the Q symbol, eg: const ԚUIT_SDL = ... where the "Q" symbol comes from the "u0500" section. ... If the symbols are too close/confusing for typing out later, I can also use alternative symbols, for eg naming like this: const ԾUIT_SDL = ... Pretty awful hack though .
Re: Pragma for temporarily making strict identifier names?
Wrappers so far are mainly for my own private testing use, rather than for
something to publish
Basically, going through the lazyfoo tuts, but transliterating as closely as
possible from the original C over to Nim
eg, code snippets like these, from the C version of chapter 3:
[http://lazyfoo.net/tutorials/SDL/03_event_driven_programming/index.php](http://lazyfoo.net/tutorials/SDL/03_event_driven_programming/index.php)
//User requests quit
if( e.type == SDL_QUIT )
{
quit = true;
}
And
//Quit SDL subsystems
SDL_Quit();
I'd be trying to write directly like this in Nim:
# User requests quit
if e.`type` == SDL_QUIT:
quit = true
And
# Quit SDL subsystems
SDL_Quit()
Mainly it means that for my direct translation from C to Nim, that one snippet
needs to change to this for me:
# User requests quit
if e.`type` == SDL_QUIT_CONSTANT:
quit = true
Was mainly wondering if there's a way to not need to do that kind of renaming
while doing direct transliterations from other languages to Nim
Re: Safe sdl2 wrapper library?
I got a bit stuck here. It's hard to eg, create a RAII-type object in a function, and then pass that to a caller. Nim wants to destroy the previous object and then make a new object. Haven't really worked with it, but I think what's missing is some kind of move semantic. I think that's under dev? (have seen something like an =sink operator under github). Basically; would like to do a Nim library similar to what this C++ library supports in terms of RAII, automated tidy-up, and also flexible passing around of RAII objects without triggering their destructors unnecessarily: [https://github.com/libSDL2pp/libSDL2pp](https://github.com/libSDL2pp/libSDL2pp) At the moment I need to eg, set a property called "disableDestructor" to true before returning a RAII-type object from a function, and then setting "disableDestructor" back to false again afterwards. Comments?
Pragma for temporarily making strict identifier names?
Use case:
I'm trying to make a really basic sdl2 library from scratch, that maps directly
to the C version.
The C code declares this function:
Sdl_Quit
But there's also this constant:
SDL_QUIT
Due to Nim's style-insensitivity, I can't have both of these identifiers as is.
eg they both start with a caps S, and otherwise look the same in terms of
identifier name to the Nim compiler
Possible to get some kind of pragma to use strict styling rather than flexible
styling?
eg something like this;
{.push strictStyle.}
proc Sdl_Quit() = ...
const SDL_QUIT = ...
{.pop strictStyle.}
Then those identifiers only ever get used in the code if you use the exact same
naming, rather than eg, nim thinking the two are the same identifier.
Comments?
PS: My current temporary workaround is to name the SDL_QUIT constant,
SDL_QUIT_CONST. But that means that I can't get a direct 1-1 mapping between C
code and nim code (for instance).
Or is there perhaps some existing method, eg stropping, which already handles
this kind of problem?
Re: Safe sdl2 wrapper library?
Thanks for the idea though. I'm going through lazyfoo tuts, and making a high level but also really safe wrapper while I'm about it. The high level wrapper builds on top of the really safe low level wrapper I was working on before. So eg, my lazyfoo chapter 01 port looks like this: import ../../my_sdl2_libs/high_level_sdl2 const SCREEN_WIDTH = 640 SCREEN_HEIGHT = 480 WHITE = (0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF) proc main = var sdl2_context = initSdl2Context(initvideo=true) var window = sdl2_context.createWindow(title="SDL Tutorial", width=SCREEN_WIDTH, height=SCREEN_HEIGHT, windowShown=true) var screenSurface = window.getSurface() screenSurface.fillRect(color=WHITE) window.updateSurface() sdl2Context.delay(2.0) main() There's no pointers or references used there, all of those are wrapper objects with built-in Nim destructors, so they also automatically tidy their resources when they go out of scope. Also not using OR-based flags, but rather bool arguments. Nim's named and optional arguments are really awesome, you don't need to use builder patterns nearly as much as in some other langs.
Re: "Cross-platform C" target for Nim?
Have been trying for a while but haven't yet been able to get niminst working for me (I'll keep trying to figure it out later) But I think the secret is actually over here during the process of installing Nim from github: git clone --depth 1 [https://github.com/nim-lang/csources.git](https://github.com/nim-lang/csources.git) Over there is c source code - generated by nim, for an earlier version of the Nim compiler. And that C source code comes in basically a huge number of permutations of OS and Architecture. Basically, 10 OS for 10 CPUs would contain 100 sets of C source code, that get bundled up over in csources.git So basically, the trick is to just compile your nim project for all the combinations of OS and CPU that you want to target . I thought there might be something like a single set of canonical source code, with a huge number of #ifdefs or something, but I guess this way works better for Nim and the codegen backends Cool!
Re: Safe sdl2 wrapper library?
After much gnashing of teeth and wailing, and I guess a few hours of random hacking too. I'm guessing it's probably just a lot easier to work against Vladar's nimgame2 most of the time for a high level SDL2 wrapper, there's already a huge amount of quality work put into it: [https://vladar4.github.io/nimgame2](https://vladar4.github.io/nimgame2)/ (still, it's fun to hack for the sake of hacking and getting practice, even if what you're working on right now is ultimately useless )
Re: General hacking in the Nim ecosystem.
@Udiknedormin lol yeah. Going further, "Nim is the new Python, Rust is the new C"
Re: General hacking in the Nim ecosystem.
Probably comes down to people taking initiative. But not in ways that are counter to how the core devs need things to be run. I guess I'd mainly want to ask @core devs - what their opinion is on - I guess the general idea of "online community" management around Nim, and how they'd want to grow that kind of thing. I don't mean things like Codes of Conduct, I mean more - I guess soft - human type things where people feel more welcome and comfortable and involved and stuff. That kind of thing I think is also very important for smaller online communities. (I have some small experience in some unrelated online community). Well, this is just my general uninformed opinion. Hope the core devs find some use for my 2c on this subject
Re: General hacking in the Nim ecosystem.
To start with... Is there some kind of way to make a forum poll? (eg: this is a phpbb feature I've frequently used in the past, for this kind of thing)
Re: General hacking in the Nim ecosystem.
Is there perhaps some kind of Nim equivalent to "Find something Rusty to work on"? [https://www.rustaceans.org/findwork/starters](https://www.rustaceans.org/findwork/starters)
General hacking in the Nim ecosystem.
Hi there! I saw recently in the (really awesome) "nim survey" for 2017, that there's a bunch of ecosystem things that people are requesting: [https://nim-lang.org/blog/2017/10/01/community-survey-results-2017.html](https://nim-lang.org/blog/2017/10/01/community-survey-results-2017.html) eg, top of the list seems to be something like a python requests-like library (as a random idea, Rust Lang already has over here, which could be liberally borrowed from, if not outright wrapped using the C FFI for a very early version): [https://docs.rs/requests/0.0.30/requests](https://docs.rs/requests/0.0.30/requests)/ ) And then there's also the Google Summer of Code 2016 application over here, which lists some different projects: [https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/wiki/GSoC-2016-Ideas](https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/wiki/GSoC-2016-Ideas) Is there any kind of place (eg wiki), where these kinds of things can be maintained and tracked? (eg, something like ongoing progress/who is busy on what, who is mentoring, etc, and then kept up to date with eg, what's been chatted about on IRC or on the forums, that kind of thing). Well, I guess it depends on how many volunteer hackers there are floating around with some free time to kill, who're interested in that kind of project. Random eg, I see that PMunch might be interested [https://www.reddit.com/r/nim/comments/73ul3g/nim_community_survey_2017_results](https://www.reddit.com/r/nim/comments/73ul3g/nim_community_survey_2017_results)/ Also, whether there might still be some kind of mentor/mentee relationship, outside of an official GSoC event. Guess you might call it NSoC for Nim Summer of Code instead, if it doesn't make GSoC; and then do that informally Well, just random stuff I'm curious about. Might also be an interesting exercise to poll about just how many people might be interested in some kind of slightly more coordinated effort to check off some of those projects
Re: Safe sdl2 wrapper library?
In terms of "proper" high level SDL2; I'd probably want to do something like re-implement the rust SDL2 wrapper. What I mainly like about that is not that it's Rust, but that it's entirely safe by default. Probably wouldn't go as far as making a Result[T] type and returning that; Idiomatic general Nim I think is more about taking advantage of the GC, as well as throwing exceptions. Someone else can wrap things in Result[T] if they like that.
Re: Python-like with, context managers, and the RAII pattern
@Benjaminel: I'm trying to emulate the Python "with" style, which is more
general-purpose than just files. I think that "using" in C# is similar, to take
any given resource for a block, and then auto-close it for you at the end of
that block.
@Others:
Thanks for the replies so far! So, I another question
1\. Can you update the macro so that it can work without an "as X" clause?
eg, something like this:
echo "I'm anywhere on the filesystem"
with changeDir("/tmp/x"):
echo "I am now under /tmp"
echo "I'm back to where I was before"
Which then would expand to something along these lines:
echo "I'm anywhere on the filesystem"
var private_x = changeDir("/tmp/x")
var private_y = my_enter(private_x)
try:
echo "I am now under /tmp"
finally:
my_exit(private_y)
echo "I'm back to where I was before"
Would like to be able to have a "with" macro that supports both forms, based on
whether there is an "as" clause.
Thanks!
"Cross-platform C" target for Nim?
Hi there. Generated C Nim code usually targets specific a specific OS and CPU combination with it's C gen backend. But the tarball for Nim itself (also written in Nim), is cross-platform, and doesn't require a specific CPU or OS to be present. Is there a way to tell the Nim compiler to output cross-platform C, in a similar sense to how Nim itself is distributed as a single tarball?
Re: Safe sdl2 wrapper library?
I've started playing with a port of pygame_sdl2 over to Nim. Probably won't go anywhere, but I'm having fun with it [https://github.com/renpy/pygame_sdl2](https://github.com/renpy/pygame_sdl2) And occasionally jumping between that and trying to re-implement some really basic parts of Ren'Py into. Eventually something like cocos2d-nim might be fun to work on . Mainly it's an excuse for me to play with Nim; studying books or tutorials is more boring and makes me sleepy That said; what's wrong with nim-lang/graphics as it is? I don't see any open issues on it. Also, no README, so I'm not sure what it's trying to achieve exactly compared to other graphics or game libs that already exist? Edit: I found this documentation: [https://nim-lang.org/0.11.0/graphics.html](https://nim-lang.org/0.11.0/graphics.html) Could you perhaps add some issues against the github repo? eg as feature requests.
Re: Python-like with, context managers, and the RAII pattern
Thanks for the replies!
Re: Python-like with, context managers, and the RAII pattern
Thanks! So if I understand it correctly, this macro usage in your snippet: take 3 as f: echo f Gets expanded to this: var f = 3 echo f How can we change the same macro, so that it desugars over to this instead? var x = 3 var f = my_enter(x) try: f = 3 finally: my_exit(x) Where: 1) x is a private variable inside the macro. 2) f is the only variable that gets exported (and then used within the statement block), so that the statements in the body can use it. 3) my_enter is a separate function that the user must supply, eg: eg: proc my_enter(x: int): int = echo "my_enter was called" return x 4) my_exit is a separate function that the user must also supply, eg: proc my_exit(x: int) = echo "my_exit was called"
Re: Python-like with, context managers, and the RAII pattern
Thanks for the replies
Is it possible to express the "withAs" template as a macro?
So that my example could look like this:
with open("test.txt") as f:
echo f.readLine()
I think it should be possible, since eg nimpylib lets you use this syntax:
class Customer(object):
"""A customer of ABC Bank with a checking account. Customers have the
following properties:
Attributes:
name: A string representing the customer's name.
balance: A float tracking the current balance of the customer's
account.
"""
eg, over here:
[https://github.com/Yardanico/nimpylib/blob/master/examples/example2.nim](https://github.com/Yardanico/nimpylib/blob/master/examples/example2.nim)
Python-like context managers and
Hi there.
I like the Python RAII pattern of "with" statements, alongside context managers.
eg, this is nice:
with open("test.txt") as f:
print f.read()
Closest thing to that I could find was the "withFile" example over in the
second Nim tut.
So I've tried to adapt that example a bit, and ended up with this:
template withAs(x: typed, y: untyped,
body: untyped): typed =
var x2 = x
var y = x2.enter()
try:
body
finally:
exit(x2)
proc enter(f: File): File =
echo "Entering context manager"
return f
proc exit(f: File) =
echo "Leaving context manager"
f.close()
open("test.txt").withAs(txt):
echo txt.readLine()
So when I run that, I get this output:
Entering context manager
HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN
Leaving context manager
So it looks like things are working.
Is "withAs" (and context managers) an existing well-known Nim pattern?
Would be nice to be able to eg, do "nim install contextlib", and then have
"withAs" as well as some other useful things.
Comments?
Re: Random idea - porting python 3 stdlib to Nim.
Thanks for those replies! @evacchi, you're absolutely right; thanks for the reminder re cython. @Tiberium, I'll probably be using nimpylib a fair amount in the future, maybe sending a pull request here and there
Random idea - porting python 3 stdlib to Nim.
Just a random brainfart. Would probably start by taking typeshed static type declarations for python builtins. String would probably be a wrapped unicode/runes string; bytes would be mainly native c bytes. Arbitrary precision int libgmp. There's already a lot of libs which bring python-like libs etc over to Nim. Resulting code would be totally none-idiomatic Nim and probably a lot slower. I'm not volunteering for this; just throwing out a totally random idea. Pretty terrible idea right? Lol.
