Allow partial application/piping of operations/operators through use of placeholders.

[met4000]

Issue type:

• :heavy_plus_sign: Feature request

---

(Note that while I only refer to partial application in the description/explanation, I am also talking about pipeing; not just applying)

Short Description:

Allow partial application of operations/operators through use of placeholders.

(Not-So-Short) Explanation:

Regardless of possible implementations: the feature request is to allow 'blank variable cards' to act as placeholders, allowing some inputs for operations/operators to remain 'un-applied', resulting in an operator with the 'un-applied' inputs and returning the original output.

Some examples (and possible implementation, using blank variable cards in the operation interface of the variable programmer): In example1, a 'blank variable card' and 'integer constant 64' are applied to the 'relational less than' operation. This would result in operator op1, which acts as if defined by the Haskell code:

op1 :: Int -> Bool
op1 x = x < 64

In example2, a blank variable card is used when applying values to an operator with the apply2 operation. In this case, op2 acts as if defined by:

op2 :: Int -> Int
op2 x = x - 64

In example3, two blank variable cards and a boolean constant false are applied to the NBT.with_boolean operation; only the last input is applied. op3 acts as if defined by:

nbt_with_boolean :: NBT -> String -> Bool -> NBT

op3 :: NBT -> String -> NBT
op3 x y = nbt_with_boolean x y false

(end of description)

This feature essentially makes InDy no longer a "pointfree" language, which makes it much easier, simpler, and intuitive for players to make functions that are currently more 'complex' to achieve. While the implementation I suggested above doesn't particularly allow a parallel implementation for pipe as well as apply, this does not have to be the only implementation. Another possibility that supports having both apply and pipe could be an interface (similar to or within the variable programmer) that accepts an operator and creates a box/slot for each respective input of the operator. The player can then place in a value/operator to apply/pipe it into that respective input. The interface would then program a variable card to be an operator that accepts the respective remaining un-applied/un-piped inputs and returns the output of the operator. For example: (Where blank, string constant, and blank are applied to the input operator InputOp, which is the NBT.boolean_with operator of signature NBT -> String -> Boolean -> NBT, and produces OutputOp of signature NBT -> Boolean -> NBT)

As I've described just the behaviours of applying so far; piping would work by substituting the piped input with the input(s) of the piped operator. For example, piping arithmeticAddition with signature NumberA -> NumberB -> Number into the third input of NBT.with_integer with signature NBT -> String -> Integer -> NBT would make an operator with signature NBT -> String -> NumberA -> NumberB -> NBT.

I'm not sure if this should be treated as two feature requests (one for partial applying, and one for 'partial piping'), especially as I think the piping behaviour is much harder to implement.

TL;DR: Allow partial application/piping of operations/operators through use of placeholders. This makes it easier and more intuitive to make 'complex' functions. A possible implementation would be using blank variable cards in the variable programmer to represent 'un-applied'/'un-piped' inputs. See above for example behaviours.

(link to discord conversation)

[rubensworks]

This has been suggested a couple of times already (#747, #194). The idea itself sounds fine, but no one has implemented it yet though.

[met4000]

Ah, my bad; when I was looking through the list of feature requests I didn't notice them because they used different keywords. You can close this; it directly duplicates both of those feature requests.