/apl-ride-client

APL Ride client, to remote control an interpreter from APL.

APL Ride Client

What

The APL Ride Client implements the RIDE protocol in APL and makes it easy to launch a separate APL process and control it with simple commands.

Why

Remote controlling an APL process via RIDE allows for mocking user interaction with the APL interpreter, such as:

  • executing expressions in the session
  • creating and changing items using the editor
  • tracing, skipping lines, resuming execution
  • anything else allowed for in the RIDE protocol

This makes it an ideal framework for writing scripted tests to validate the behaviour of the interpreter or development tools.

How

Execute a simple expression in the session and collect the output:

      c←⎕NEW Ride.Client
      c.Start
      c.Execute'?3 3⍴100'
      ⎕←c.WaitForSessionOutput 1000
 5  79  8                     
46  72 25                     
21 100 32

Define a function:

      c.Edit'foo' ('r←foo' 'r←42')
      c.Execute'foo'
      ⎕←c.WaitForSessionOutput 1000  
42

Define a class:

      c.Edit'○ MyClass'(':Class MyClass' ':Field Public Shared ID←12' ':EndClass') 
      c.Execute'↑⎕SRC MyClass'
      ⎕←c.WaitForSessionOutput 1000
:Class MyClass                                                                   
:Field Public Shared ID←12                                                       
:EndClass                                                                        
      c.Execute'MyClass.ID' 
      ⎕←c.WaitForSessionOutput 1000
12

Run multiple clients simultaneously:

      cs←⎕NEW¨10⍴Ride.Client
      cs.Start               
      cs.Execute⊂'?⍳10'       
      r←cs.WaitForSessionOutput 1000