Some computations involve only a few functors, but to access them a traversal of a complex data structure must be specified.
Assume that in an abstract syntax a type Expr is defined with a functor
id(IDENT, POS)which is used to represent an application of an identifier at a given position. We wish to describe the task of printing all identifier applications together with their coordinates. For this purpose we use a predicate
ListApplication(Id, Pos)each time we encounter a term id(Id, Pos).
For example,
'rule' VisitExpr(id(Id, Pos)): ListApplication(Id, Pos)In order to list all identifier applications, we have to inspect the whole abstract syntax by a recursive traversal. For example, when we process a term if(Cond, Then, Else)), all three constituents can contain identifier applications. We have to write
'rule' VisitStmt(if(Cond,Then,Else)): VisitExpr(Cond) VisitStmt(Then) VisitStmt(Else)and similar rules for all other functors.
This can be abbreviated using sweep predicates.
A sweep predicate traverses the data structure given as its argument. When an explicitly written rule is applicable this rule is taken. Otherwise a default rule is used that visits recursively the constituents of the argument. Hence rules such as
'rule' VisitExpr(id(Id, Pos)): ListApplication(Id, Pos)must be specified, but rules such as
'rule' VisitStmt(if(Cond,Then,Else)): VisitExpr(Cond) VisitStmt(Then) VisitStmt(Else)need not be written.
A sweep predicate is declared as being of of category 'sweep'. It is a generic predicate in the sense that it works on all term types, the parameter is specified as being of type ANY (which is used as a generic type name).
The cross-reference application discussed above is completely specified by the following declaration
'sweep' Visit(ANY) 'rule' Visit(id(Id, Pos)): ListApplication(Id, Pos)Assuming that we specified the grammar by a predicate Program, we can list all applications of identifiers by writing
'root' Program(-> Pgm) Visit(Pgm)