In Specman, why is my macro label for the code body returning garbage?

Question

Similar to this post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cadence/community/blogs/fv/~3/IvdCIla8_Es/extending-multiple-when-subtypes-simultaneously.aspx

I want to make a macro that does loop unrolling to get around some of the when-subtyping and inheritance issues Specman has.

I've started with:

-- macros.e
<'
define <FOREACH_UNROLL'action> "FOREACH_UNROLL (<UNROLLEES>\[<unrollee'name>,...\]) (<STATEMENTS>{<statement>;...})" as computed {
   print <UNROLLEES>;
   print str_split(<UNROLLEES>,"/ *, */");
   for each in str_split(<UNROLLEES>,"/ *, */") {
      out(it.as_a(string));
      var statements := str_replace( <STATEMENTS>,"\"REPLACE_ME\"",it);
      result =appendf("%s %s;",result,statements);
   };
};
'>


-- main.e
<'
import macros.e
extend sys {
   run() is also {
      FOREACH_UNROLL [baz,foo,bar] {
         out("REPLACE_ME");
         out("part2","REPLACE_ME");
      };
   };
};
'>

When I run this, I get:

specman -c 'load $HOME/main; test'
Welcome to Specman Elite(64) (08.20.007-s)  -  Linked on Tue Dec 15 17:07:26
2009

Protected by U.S. Patents 6,141,630 ;6,182,258; 6,219,809; 6,347,388;
6,487,704; 6,499,132; 6,502,232; 6,519,727; 6,530,054; 6,675,138; 6,684,359;
6,687,662; 6,907,599; 6,918,076; 6,920,583; Other Patents Pending.

0 notifications were modified by command 'set notify -severity=WARNING
DEPR_START_TCM_ARG_BY_REF'
Checking license ... OK
Loading macros.e   (imported by main.e) ...
read...parse...update...patch...h code...code...clean...
Loading /nfs/pdx/home/rbroger1/main.e ...
read...parse...  <UNROLLEES> = "[35]"
  str_split(<UNROLLEES>,"/ *, */") =
0.      "[35]"
[35]
update...patch...h code...code...clean...
Doing setup ...
Generating the test using seed 1...

Starting the test ...
Running the test ...
REPLACE_ME
part2REPLACE_ME
No actual running requested.
Checking the test ...
Checking is complete - 0 DUT errors, 0 DUT warnings.

If you look at the printout of <UNROLLEES>:

<UNROLLEES> = "[35]"

Why does <UNROLLEES> give me [35] instead of the body inside the curly braces? 35 is the ascii value for #, so I'm at a loss why I would get a 35...

P.S. I realize macros are from the devil, but I think code copying is worse. I have to do this because Specman isn't really polymorphic.

Answer 1

It turns out I needed to use the function str_expand_dots in my version of Specman (8.2).

Here is the modified macros.e:

define <FOREACH_UNROLL'action> "FOREACH_UNROLL (<UNROLLEES>\[<unrollee'name>,...\]) (<STATEMENTS>{<statement>;...})" as computed {
   -- print str_expand_dots(<UNROLLEES>);
   --print str_expand_dots(<STATEMENTS>);
   -- print str_split(str_expand_dots(<UNROLLEES>),"/ *, */");
   for each  in str_split(str_expand_dots(<UNROLLEES>),"/ *, */") {
      var unrollee := str_replace(it, "[","");
      unrollee = str_replace(unrollee, "]","");
      --out(unrollee);
      var statements := str_replace( str_expand_dots(<STATEMENTS>),"\"REPLACE_ME\"",unrollee);
      result =appendf("%s %s;",result,statements);
   };
};

Modified main.e:

import macros;
extend sys {
   run() is also {
      FOREACH_UNROLL ["baz","foo","bar"] {
         out("REPLACE_ME");
         out("part2","REPLACE_ME");
         if "REPLACE_ME" == "baz" {
            out("found baz");
         };
      };
   };
};

And the output:

Welcome to Specman Elite(64) (08.20.007-s)  -  Linked on Tue Dec 15 17:07:26
2009

Protected by U.S. Patents 6,141,630 ;6,182,258; 6,219,809; 6,347,388;
6,487,704; 6,499,132; 6,502,232; 6,519,727; 6,530,054; 6,675,138; 6,684,359;
6,687,662; 6,907,599; 6,918,076; 6,920,583; Other Patents Pending.

0 notifications were modified by command 'set notify -severity=WARNING
DEPR_START_TCM_ARG_BY_REF'
Checking license ... OK
Loading /nfs/pdx/home/rbroger1/macros.e   (imported by main.e) ...
read...parse...update...patch...h code...code...clean...
Loading /nfs/pdx/home/rbroger1/main.e ...
read...parse...update...patch...h code...code...clean...
Doing setup ...
Generating the test using seed 1...

Starting the test ...
Running the test ...
baz
part2baz
found baz
foo
part2foo
bar
part2bar
No actual running requested.
Checking the test ...
Checking is complete - 0 DUT errors, 0 DUT warnings.