lift

Lift is a generics-inflected Go package for lifting Go types

Why lift?

Loosely (and imprecisely) inspired by notions of function lifting, lift intends to provide some glue for lifting in Go. The central idea of lift is type enumeration symbols - runtime values which predicate branching and matching logic over types.

This overlaps with a number of existing mechanisms in Go, from type assertions to reflect. lift is distinguished by being generics-inflected, and narrow in scope. Eventually, lift is trying to be a small but complete abstraction for runtime dispatch gadgetry. The package is at the moment entirely experimental in nature. I hope you find the results interesting or informative or useful :)

What is in lift?

Sym

Sym are type enumeration symbols. Additionally, Sym may carry wrapped values in conjunction with type enumertaion symbols. This puts a generics-inflected take on familiar ideas.

lift.Map

Type enumeration symbols are a natural fit as map keys. The Map type uses Sym keys, and may be parameterized to any V value. For example:

	piece, _ := lift.Load[ Queen ]( black )

loads a piece associated with some type Queen, from some map black.

Runtime dispatch gadgets

• lift/conv has a Converter type, for indexing conversion functions. For example:

	rgb, _ := conv.To[RGB](cv, hex)

converting to some type RGB, from some hex value, with some converter cv.

• lift package examples explore other runtime dispatch gadgetry.

How does lift work?

There are two types of type enumeration symbols at work in lift. First, the internal enum:

	type enum[T any] struct{}

Sensibly enough:

• Any type T implies a corresponding type enum[T]
• An enum[T] is == to all similarly flavored enum[T]
• An enum[U] is not == to any differently flavored enum[V], for any V

Second, the exported Sym:

	type Sym interface { ... }

An enum[T] satisfies the Sym interface. When an enum[T] is boxed as a Sym, the comparison rules apply still apply, modulo the boxing. Concretely, if two Sym share a dynamic type enum[T], their dynamic values will never differ.

Not all Sym box an enum[T]. But, as an invariant promoted by the lift package, all (non-nil) Sym derive enum[T] via an internal method:

	enum() Sym

So, while a Sym is not type-parametric, it can propagate a type flavor for the purposes of comparison. In turn, this permits branching or matching on type flavors (even, or especially, where a type parameter associated with Sym flavor isn't present).

Is it efficient?

lift is not a performance hack. So far, performance hasn't been a priority; writing this package has been more about exploring the concepts. Examining performance more thoroughly is a future goal.

Glaringly, lift.Map is sluggish. In its defense, lift.Map is very general, and easy to write for. For some usages, a more performant alternative (e.g., a switch for fixed sets) is tractable. Something other than a built-in map for the underlying implementation of lift.Map could be interesting to explore.

That said, some preliminary benchmarking suggests that using lift as an alternative to equivalently elaborate schemes based on e.g. interface{} boxing is not a performance loss. Contrasting lift with reflect, unsafe etc. also seems worthwhile to look at.