2.11 Constructing Graphs: shared

The shared form is similar to letrec, except that special forms of expr are recognized (after partial macro expansion) to construct graph-structured data, where the corresponding letrec would instead produce #<undefined>s.

Each expr (after partial expansion) is matched against the following shared-expr grammar, where earlier variants in a production take precedence over later variants:

shared-expr		=		shell-expr
		|		plain-expr
shell-expr		=		(cons in-immutable-expr in-immutable-expr)
		|		(list in-immutable-expr ...)
		|		(list* in-immutable-expr ...)
		|		(append early-expr ... in-immutable-expr)
		|		(vector-immutable in-immutable-expr ...)
		|		(box-immutable in-immutable-expr)
		|		(mcons patchable-expr patchable-expr)
		|		(vector patchable-expr ...)
		|		(box patchable-expr ...)
		|		(prefix:make-id patchable-expr ...)
in-immutable-expr		=		shell-id
		|		shell-expr
		|		early-expr
shell-id		=		id
patchable-expr		=		expr
early-expr		=		expr
plain-expr		=		expr

The prefix:make-id identifier above references to any binding whose name has make- in the middle, and where prefix:id has a transformer binding to structure information with a full set of mutator bindings; see Structure Type Transformer Binding. A shell-id must be one of the ids bound by the shared form to a shell-expr.

When the exprs of the shared form are parsed via shared-expr (taking into account the order of the variants for precedence), and sub-expressions that parse via early-expr will be evaluated first when the shared form is evaluated. Among such expressions, they are evaluated in the order as they appear within the shared form. However, any reference to an id bound by shared produces #<undefined>, even if the binding for the id appears before the corresponding early-expr within the shared form.

The shell-ids and shell-exprs (not counting patchable-expr and early-expr sub-expressions) are effectively evaluated next. A shell-id reference produces the same value as the corresponding id will produce within the bodys, assuming that id is never mutated with set!. This special handling of a shell-id reference is one way in which shared supports the creation of cyclic data, including immutable cyclic data.

Next, the plain-exprs are evaluated as for letrec, where a reference to an id produces #<undefined> if it is evaluated before the right-hand side of the id binding.

Finally, the patchable-exprs are evaluated. At this point, all ids are bound, so patchable-exprs also creates data cycles (but only with cycles that can be created via mutation).

Examples:

> (shared ([a (cons 1 a)])       a)

#0= '(1 . #0#)

> (shared ([a (cons 1 b)]              [b (cons 2 a)])       a)

#0= '(1 2 . #0#)

> (shared ([a (cons 1 b)]              [b 7])       a)

'(1 . 7)

> (shared ([a a]) ; no indirection...       a)

#<undefined>

> (shared ([a (cons 1 b)] ; b is early...              [b a])       a)

'(1 . #<undefined>)

> (shared ([a (mcons 1 b)] ; b is patchable...              [b a])       a)

#0=(mcons 1 #0#)

> (shared ([a (vector b b b)]              [b (box 1)])       (set-box! b 5)       a)

'#(#&5 #&5 #&5)

> (shared ([a (box b)]              [b (vector (unbox a)   ; unbox after a is patched                         (unbox c))] ; unbox before c is patched              [c (box b)])       b)

#0= '#(#0# #<undefined>)