Dynamic Typing Example Code

Some people deny any usefulness of dynamic typing. This little program below is my attempt to show that dynamic typing can be a big help to get working code as fast as possible. Nothing more. This is especially not an argument that dynamic typing is universally "better" than static typing.

It's a minimal build tool, essentially how the Rake and Rant programs (both can be found on http://rubyforge.org) started out. It's written in Ruby, but I'm sure a straightforward translation to Python, Perl and Lisp is possible.

It shows the following features/characteristics usually found in dynamic languages:

• No type or interface declarations to make the compiler happy
• List and hashtable literals
• Heterogeneous lists (arrays in the example, to be precise)
• Embedded DSLs
• Dead easy dynamic code loading, no file compilation step needed
• Late binding. The interpreter is happy to run the code even if some parts are not type correct.

All of the points listed above have advantages and disadvantages, but they are all very handy for prototyping.

    #!/usr/bin/env ruby

    class Task
        def self.valid_name?(name)
            name.kind_of?(Symbol)
        end
        attr_reader :name
        # Array of symbols and strings. A symbol names a regular task
        # whereas a string names a file (for which a FileTask? may exist).
        attr_reader :prerequisites
        def initialize(name, prerequisites, block)
            @name = name
            @prerequisites = prerequisites
            @done = nil
            @block = block
        end
        def done?
            @done
        end
        def run
            @block.call(self) if @block
            @done = true
        end
        def uptodate?
            done?
        end
    end

    class FileTask? < Task
        def self.valid_name?(name)
            name.kind_of?(String)
        end
        def uptodate?
            done? or
              File.exist?(name) &&
                prerequisites.all? { |pre|
                    File.mtime(name) >= File.mtime(pre)
                }
        end
    end

    class Build
        attr_reader :tasks
        def initialize
            @tasks = {}
        end
        def load_build_file(filename)
            instance_eval(File.read(filename), filename)
        end
        def make(taskname)
            t = @tasks[taskname]
            if t.nil?
                if taskname.kind_of?(String)
                    unless File.exist? taskname
                        raise "Don't know how to make file #{taskname}."
                    end
                else
                    raise "No such task: #{taskname}"
                end
            else
                t.prerequisites.each { |pre| make pre }
                t.run unless t.uptodate?
            end
        end
        def task_(klass, args, &block)
            case args
            when Symbol, String:
                name = args
                prerequisites = []
            when Hash:
                name = args.keys.first
                prerequisites = args.values.first
                unless args.size == 1 && prerequisites.kind_of?(Array)
                    raise "Invalid task argument syntax."
                end
            else raise "task syntax error"
            end
            raise "Invalid name #{name.inspect}." unless klass.valid_name? name
            @tasks[name] = klass.new(name, prerequisites, block)
        end
        def task(*args, &block)
            task_(Task, *args, &block)
        end
        def file(*args, &block)
            task_(FileTask?, *args, &block)
        end
        def sh(cmd)
            puts cmd
            system cmd or raise "command failure"
        end
    end

    if $0 == __FILE__
        build = Build.new
        build.load_build_file "makefile.rb"
        taskname = ARGV[0] || :default
        taskname = taskname.to_sym if build.tasks[taskname.to_sym]
        build.make(taskname)
    end

To try the code, save it in a file called make.rb and set the executable bit. An example build description (save it in a file called makefile.rb) is below:

    require "fileutils"

    task :default => ["hello"]

    file "hello" => ["hello.c"] do |t|
        sh "cc -o #{t.name} #{t.prerequisites.join(' ')}"
    end

    task :rebuild => [:clean, "hello"]

    task :clean do
        FileUtils?::Verbose.rm_f "hello"
    end

A shell session might look like:

    $ cat hello.c
    #include <stdio.h>
    int main() {
        printf("Hello, world!\n");
        return 0;
    }
    $ ./make.rb
    cc -o hello hello.c
    $ ./make.rb
    $ touch hello.c
    $ ./make.rb
    cc -o hello hello.c
    $ ./make.rb rebuild
    rm -f hello
    cc -o hello hello.c
    $