Use Rhai as a Domain-Specific Language (DSL)

Rhai can be successfully used as a domain-specific language (DSL).

Expressions Only

In many DSL scenarios, only evaluation of expressions is needed.

The [Engine::eval_expression_XXX][eval_expression] API can be used to restrict a script to expressions only.

Unicode Standard Annex #31 Identifiers

Variable names and other identifiers do not necessarily need to be ASCII-only.

The [unicode-xid-ident] feature, when turned on, causes Rhai to allow variable names and identifiers that follow Unicode Standard Annex #31.

This is sometimes useful in a non-English DSL.

Disable Keywords and/or Operators

In some DSL scenarios, it is necessary to further restrict the language to exclude certain language features that are not necessary or dangerous to the application.

For example, a DSL may disable the while loop while keeping all other statement types intact.

It is possible, in Rhai, to surgically [disable keywords and operators].

Custom Operators

On the other hand, some DSL scenarios require special operators that make sense only for that specific environment. In such cases, it is possible to define [custom operators] in Rhai.

For example:

let animal = "rabbit";
let food = "carrot";

animal eats food            // custom operator - 'eats'

eats(animal, food)          // <- the above really de-sugars to this

Although a [custom operator] always de-sugars to a simple function call, nevertheless it makes the DSL syntax much simpler and expressive.

Custom Syntax

For advanced DSL scenarios, it is possible to define entire expression [syntax][custom syntax] - essentially custom statement types.

For example, the following is a SQL-like syntax for some obscure DSL operation:

let table = [..., ..., ..., ...];

// Syntax = calculate $ident$ ( $expr$ -> $ident$ ) => $ident$ : $expr$
let total = calculate sum(table->price) => row : row.weight > 50;

// Note: There is nothing special about those symbols; to make it look exactly like SQL:
// Syntax = SELECT $ident$ ( $ident$ ) AS $ident$ FROM $expr$ WHERE $expr$
let total = SELECT sum(price) AS row FROM table WHERE row.weight > 50;

After registering this custom syntax with Rhai, it can be used anywhere inside a script as a normal expression.

For its evaluation, the callback function will receive the following list of inputs:

inputs[0] = "sum" - math operator
inputs[1] = "price" - field name
inputs[2] = "row" - loop variable name
inputs[3] = Expression(table) - data source
inputs[4] = Expression(row.wright > 50) - filter predicate

Other identifiers, such as "calculate", "FROM", as well as symbols such as -> and : etc., are parsed in the order defined within the custom syntax.

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