Julia bindings for using sppl across PythonCall.jl.

Example usage

Allows the usage of direct string macros:

spn = sppl"""
Nationality   ~= choice({'India': 0.5, 'USA': 0.5})
if (Nationality == 'India'):
    Perfect       ~= bernoulli(p=0.10)
    if (Perfect == 1):  
        GPA ~= atomic(loc=10)
    else:               
        GPA ~= uniform(loc=0, scale=10)
else:
    Perfect       ~= bernoulli(p=0.15)
    if (Perfect == 1):  
        GPA ~= atomic(loc=4)
    else:               
        GPA ~= uniform(loc=0, scale=4)
"""

as well as the usage of a native macro with native structures:

spn = @sppl begin
    nationality ~ SPPL.Choice([:India => 0.5, :USA => 0.5])
    perfect ~ SPPL.Bernoulli(0.1)
    gpa ~ SPPL.Atomic(4)
end
println(spn)

(nationality = <py Identity('nationality')>, 
 perfect = <py Identity('perfect')>, 
 gpa = <py Identity('gpa')>, 
 model = <py sppl.spe.ProductSPE object at 0x1e6ce3d60>)

Of course, you can use native abstractions:

@sppl function foo(x::Float64)
    nationality ~ SPPL.Choice([:India => x, :USA => 1 - x])
    perfect ~ SPPL.Bernoulli(0.1)
    gpa ~ SPPL.Atomic(4)
end

which expands to produce a generator:

:(function foo(x::Float64)
      gpa = Main.IndianGPA.SPPL.Id(:gpa)
      nationality = Main.IndianGPA.SPPL.Id(:nationality)
      perfect = Main.IndianGPA.SPPL.Id(:perfect)
      command = Main.IndianGPA.SPPL.Sequence(
          Main.IndianGPA.SPPL.Sample(nationality, 
            SPPL.Choice([:India => x, :USA => 1 - x])), 
          Main.IndianGPA.SPPL.Sample(perfect, SPPL.Bernoulli(0.1)),
          Main.IndianGPA.SPPL.Sample(gpa, SPPL.Atomic(4))
        )
      model = command.interpret()
      namespace = (nationality = Main.IndianGPA.SPPL.Id(:nationality), 
                   perfect = Main.IndianGPA.SPPL.Id(:perfect), 
                   gpa = Main.IndianGPA.SPPL.Id(:gpa), 
                   model = model)
      namespace
  end)

Syntax

There are a few special pieces of syntax which the user should keep in mind. Some of these points make the macro parsing unambiguous, others are more for convenience.

• Sample statements are expressed using ~ syntax.
• Transform expressions (a polynomial for example, expressed in Python as X[1] ~ 8 * W[2]**2 + 5) are specified a "special" operator .>.
• The Julia ternary expression foo ? b1 : b2 is allowed - this desugars into IfElse.
• Array declarations are performed using the library-provided array function interface. Array declarations must be made (!) before indexing/use - or else macro parsing will return an error.
• == desugars to << on the Python side (this creates an event - a condition).
• The for expression is allowed - but you are restricted to only supply UnitRange{Int64} instances for the parsing/semantics to work properly.

Examples of each of these points can be found in the examples directory. These examples come directly from the sppl Jupyter notebooks. If you'd like to help port these over, just setup a PR!