A dyn scrutinee is no longer required to already be a bool: it is tested
for truthiness, Clojure's rule, not C's or Python's — nil and false are
the only falsey values, and everything else, including 0, "", an empty
vec, an empty map and a keyword, is truthy. A typed scrutinee is
unchanged and keeps needing a strict bool.
The runtime side is one new entry point, flan_dyn_truthy
(runtime/flan_dyn.c/.h), reading the tag directly rather than unboxing —
it never traps, unlike flan_dyn_need_bool. Both backends reach it the
same generic way flan_dyn_need_bool already did: check.ml emits an
ordinary Rt call plus the existing i32-to-bool Cast, so emit.ml only
needed the LLVM declare added and x86.ml needed nothing at all.
check.ml's check_truthy is the one funnel every boolean position in the
language goes through: if's own condition, while's, and not's argument.
when and cond reach it for free because they desugar to Ast.If in
parse.ml, and so does and's condition; or's condition does too, but its
answer position is a separate story — its short-circuit sentinel is the
then arm of its own if, which check_if types before anything else, so a
non-bool dyn value reaching that position still meets the strict bool
boundary. and's sentinel sits in the else arm instead, so the real
value's type wins and and hands back the actual last operand,
Clojure-style; or does not get that for the reason above, and reordering
it is a decision for another day, not this one. shortcircuit in parse.ml
carries the note.
check_truthy checks the scrutinee with no expectation first, so a dyn
value takes the truthy path and everything else takes the strict one. A
refusal on that second path is re-checked with the old want:Bool rather
than reported from the bare check, because a bare integer or float
literal, or a bare None, answers "what type is this" differently than
"is this a bool" — check.ml's own arms only give the nicer sentence
("expected bool, found the integer literal 5", "expected bool, found
None") when asked the second way, and that sentence is preserved exactly,
letter for letter, against what a typed if already said.
test/programs/dyn-if-truthy.flan surveys every falsey and truthy case —
nil, false, true, 0, a nonzero number, an empty and nonempty string, an
empty and nonempty vec, an empty and nonempty map, a keyword — through
if, when, cond, and, or, not and while, with real output pinned in
test_acceptance.ml across LLVM, -O0 and --x86. test_flan.ml covers the
checker side directly: a typed if still takes a bare bool and still
refuses a non-bool scrutinee and a bare None with their original
messages, a dyn if/not/while/when/cond/and/or all accept a non-bool dyn
condition. test/dyn_ops.c gets a matching set of direct calls to
flan_dyn_truthy, keeping the header's own contract with the C side.
Joseph Ferano
264765a6a5