Set Sharing

As we describe more complex situations by combining various sets, we may find ourselves creating numerous sets together. Alternatively, we might need to use a set that was developed by another programmer. To facilitate these scenarios, SetBuilders enables the definition of sets outside the current execution environment, such as from an external file.

Loading Set Module

At the time of this writing, SetBuilders offers functionality to load sets from a Julia module, which could be housed in a file.

path = "path/to/set/module"
@setpkg load path

The @setpkg macro, when used with the "load" sub-command, loads a Julia module from the specified file. This file should be a regular Julia module that exports sets.

module MySetModule
export MySet

MySet = @setbuild(Integer)
end

To use the exported set, you can use @setpkg load command as shown below:

@setpkg load "path/to/set/module"
using SetBuilders.MySetModule

@assert 1 in MySet

To reduce the chance of naming pollution, the set module is imported beneath the SetBuilders module. Apart from this, it can be treated as a regular Julia module.

The SetBuilders set module is an extension of the Julia module. The @expect macro requires users of the set module to provide "expected" values, while the @option macro defines optional information. These extensions assist the set developer in creating sets independently from the set users.

module MySetModule

export MySet

@expect(x::Integer)
@option(y::Integer)

I       = @setbuild(Integer)
MySet   = @setbuild(z in I, z + x > 0, x=x)

end

The expected value x can be provided as demonstrated below.

@setpkg load "path/to/set/module" x=1