This project is hosted as a github repository.

This project is mainly a demonstration that Common Lisp can be used to create Domain-Specific Languages (DSL). I created this project for a lecture (available on slideshare) on metaprogramming and reflection in Common Lisp (December 8th, 2011, at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute, Potsdam, Germany). I'm certainly not an expert in Common Lisp, far from that, and the code I wrote is also far from being clean.

The DSL included in this project allows to create slides out of Common Lisp code such as:

(slide 
  :title "Creating Lists"
  :answer t
  (lisp (cons 3 nil))
  (lisp (cons 2 (3)) :answer nil  :eval nil)
  (text "Impossible as \\ct{3} is not a function")
  (lisp (cons 2 '(3)))
  (lisp (cons 1 '(2 3)))
  (lisp (list 1 2 3))
  (lisp '(1 2 3)))

The DSL evaluates each lisp expression and presents, in the resulting slide, both the expression and its automatically computed result. Slide definitions are compiled into a pdf by using LaTeX and Beamer. The previous slide definition results in a slide looking similar to and much nicer than:

|-----------------------------------|
| Creating Lists                    |
|-----------------------------------|
| > (cons 3 nil)                    |
| (3)                               |
| > (cons 2 (3))                    |
| Impossible as 3 is not a function |
| > (cons 2 '(3))                   |
| (2 3)                             |
| > (cons 1 '(2 3))                 |
| (1 2 3)                           |
| > (list 1 2 3)                    |
| (1 2 3)                           |
| > '(1 2 3)                        |
| (1 2 3)                           |
|-----------------------------------|

This project mainly consists of the following files:

• dslides.lisp: The definition of the DSL to define slides in Common Lisp. This file requires cl-ppcre.

• make.sh: A Bash script to generate the resulting pdf out of a clos.lisp and clos.tex definition.

• Example slides:

  • clos.lisp: defines the slide contents using Common Lisp.
  • clos.tex: main Beamer LaTeX file that \\input the generated LaTeX slides.
  • clos.pdf: result of building the example slides.

• Emacs Lisp configuration

  • dslides.el: some functions to make writing slides in Emacs easier. Just press C-c v while the Emacs cursor is on a slide definition to display the resulting slide.
  • .dir-locals.el: configure some Emacs variables.

• Beamer configuration: all these files set the theme of the slides (logo, colors, header, footer, …)

  • resources/hpi.png
  • beamercolorthemehpimetaprogramming.sty
  • beamerfontthemehpimetaprogramming.sty
  • beamerinnerthemehpimetaprogramming.sty
  • beamerouterthemehpimetaprogramming.sty
  • beamerthemehpimetaprogramming.sty

• Example files in C and Common Lisp to support the slides

  • example-c/compile.sh
  • example-c/ex1.c
  • example-c/ex2.c
  • example-c/macro.c
  • example-lisp/oo.lisp
  • example-lisp/while.lisp