In Nix, if an unquoted string contains a slash but does not start with a slash, then it is interpreted as a relative path with respect to the directory in which the source file resides, and the parser converts it to an absolute path.
I love being able to easily do relative imports, but I don't find this approach particularly elegant or intuitive, and I don't like how it complicates the syntax.
But, I just realized, we can get relative imports easily without a language feature.
The import function in the "standard library" dict that we pass to a file's top-level function just needs to include the path of the file (and probably some additional convenient path-manipulating functions). In doing this, we buy back some purity. By passing the path argument through a function parameter, we eliminate a case where an expression's semantics depend on something other than formal parameters.
The other cool thing about this: While Nix import syntax is restricted to static paths only,
A Nix expression loaded by import must not contain any free variables (identifiers that are not defined in the Nix expression itself and are not built-in). Therefore, it cannot refer to variables that are in scope at the call site.
Bricks won't have that limitation. import will, syntactically, be an ordinary function.
In Nix, if an unquoted string contains a slash but does not start with a slash, then it is interpreted as a relative path with respect to the directory in which the source file resides, and the parser converts it to an absolute path.
I love being able to easily do relative imports, but I don't find this approach particularly elegant or intuitive, and I don't like how it complicates the syntax.
But, I just realized, we can get relative imports easily without a language feature.
The import function in the "standard library" dict that we pass to a file's top-level function just needs to include the path of the file (and probably some additional convenient path-manipulating functions). In doing this, we buy back some purity. By passing the path argument through a function parameter, we eliminate a case where an expression's semantics depend on something other than formal parameters.
The other cool thing about this: While Nix import syntax is restricted to static paths only,
Bricks won't have that limitation.
importwill, syntactically, be an ordinary function.