12 Packages

(ns advanced.packages
  "A notebook demonstrating how to import and use Wolfram packages in Wolframite."
  (:require
   [scicloj.kindly.v4.kind :as k]
   [wolframite.api.v1 :as wl]
   [wolframite.wolfram :as w]))

Working with packages has never been easier! Following the Wolfram symbol convention, we introduce Wolframite’s version of <<, a.k.a. Get, to both load the given file (*.wl or *.m) into the working kernel and to attach the Wolfram context’s symbols (including functions) to a Clojure namespace. The name of the namespace defaults to the context’s name, but you can also define a custom name, passed in as a Clojure symbol.

The functions inside the Wolfram package can then be used just like any other Wolfram functions.

For example, try loading WolframPackageDemo.wl and running the two functions defined inside:

  tryIt[x_] :=
    Module[{y},
      x^3
    ]

and

additional[y_]:=3*y

(wl/restart!)

{:status :ok, :wolfram-version 14.1, :started? true}

(wl/<<! "resources/WolframPackageDemo.wl")

WolframPackageDemo

(wl/!
 (WolframPackageDemo/tryIt 10))

(wl/!
 (WolframPackageDemo/additional 10))

(wl/!
 (w/Information WolframPackageDemo/tryIt "Usage"))

"Used for testing Wolframite."

That’s it! As you can see, the functions are callable and the documentation is available too.

If you want to change the context name, e.g. to make it shorter, then this is also simple. In general, we allow for the package name and context name to be different, so the full call is (... path.wl context alias), i.e.

(wl/<<! "resources/WolframPackageDemo.wl" "WolframPackageDemo" 'pck)

pck

(wl/! (pck/tryIt 10))

(wl/!  (w/Information pck/additional "Usage"))

"Another function in the test package."

And so, you have the whole power of Wolfram packages at your fingertips. And to be honest, this is actually easier to work with than using Wolfram’s contexts directly. Clojure does namespaces well.

12.1 Tip: Shareable packages

It is fine to use the short version of Get when working in a notebook-like style, evaluating every expression as you go, but there is one problem with it: you won’t be able to require the resulting namespace to use it from other namespaces. This is because it creates a namespace for the package’s symbols on the fly, while the Clojure Reader expects all namespaces to exist already when it reads the code. One way to fix it is to manually create the target namespace, declare the symbols, and load the package there:

(ns my.package.demo
  (:require [wolframite.core :as wl]))

(declare additional tryIt)

#'my.package.demo/tryIt

(wl/<<! "resources/WolframPackageDemo.wl" "WolframPackageDemo" (ns-name *ns*))

my.package.demo

Now you can safely (require '[my.package.demo :as demo]) and (demo/tryIt) from any namespace.

source: notebooks/advanced/packages.clj