This library provides the predicate replace/5, which is the basic entry point for all the refactoring scenarios.

Note for implementors/hackers:

• Be careful with some variables, they use destructive assignment --TODO: document them.
• format("~a", [Atom]) does not behaves as write_term(Atom, Options), since a space is not added to separate operators from the next term, for instance after rewriting :- dynamic a/1, you would get :- dynamica/1.
• write('') is used to reset the effect of the partial(true) option

 replace(+Level, +Patt, -Into, :Expander, :Options) is det

Given a Level of operation, in all terms of the source code that subsumes Patt, replace each Patt with Into, provided that Expander succeeds. Expander can be used to finalize the shape of Into as well as to veto the expansion (if fails). The Options argument is used to control the behavior and scope of the replacement.

The predicate is efficient enough to be used also as a walker to capture all matches of Term, and failing to avoid the replacement. For example:

replace(
    sent,
    (:-use_module(X)), _,
    (refactor_message(information, format("~w", [X])), fail),
    [file(F)])

will display all the occurrences of use_module/1 declarations in the file F. Would be useful for some complex refactoring scenarios.

The levels of operations stablishes where to look for matching terms, and could take one of the following values:

• goal Look for terms that match a given goal. This is implemented using the source reader
• term Look for sub-terms in a given read term recursivelly.
• sent Look for a matching term
• head Look for matching clause heads
• head_rec In a clause head, look for matching terms recursivelly
• body Look for a matching clause body
• body_rec In a clause body, look for matching terms recursivelly

  If level is sent, some special cases of Term are used to control its behavior:

• [] Adds an extra sentence at the top of the file.
• end_of_file Adds an extra sentence at the bottom of the file.
• [_|_] Replace list of sentences
• '$NODOT'(X) Print X but without the ending dot

  The term Into could contain certain hacks to control its behavior, as follows:

• X @@ Y Print the term X with the surroundings of Y (comments, etc.). This is useful to preserve comments in Y, if Y is going to dissapear in the transformed code.
• X $@ Y Print the term X following the format of Y.
• $@(X) Use write_term for X (this will ignore automatic formatting following the pattern)
• '$G'(Into, Goal) Hook to execute Goal over the transformation generated by Into.
• '$NOOP'(X) Just Ignore, but process X to get possible expected side effects (for instance, '$G'/2 hacks).
• '$BODY'(X, Offset) Print X as if it where the body of a clause, that is, by introducing a new line per each conjunction and indentation starting at Offset position, plus extra characters if required.
• '$BODY'(X) Like '$BODY'(X, 0)
• '$BODYB'(X, Offset) Like '$BODY', but adding braces if required
• '$BODYB'(X) Like '$BODYB'(X, 0)
• '$CLAUSE'(X, Offset) Print X as if it where a clause, starting indentation at Offset position.
• '$CLAUSE'(X) Like '$CLAUSE'(X, 0)
• '$LIST'(L) Print each element of L
• '$APP'(L1, L2) Print the result of append(L1, L2, L), but preserving the formats of L1 and L2 Note that if you use append/3 directly, the format of L1 will be lost
• '$LISTC'(L) Print each element of L in a way similar to portray_clause
• '$LIST,'(L) Print each element of L placing a comma between them
• '$LIST,_'(L) Print each element of L followed by a comma
• '$LIST,NL'(L) Print each element of L followed by a comma and a new line If Level is sent, the tool will add this automatically if the replacement is a list, and in the case of an empty list, the sentence will be removed.
• '$LIST.NL'(L) Print each element of L followed by a dot and a new line without clause layout
• '$TEXT'(T, N) Write T with higest priority and no quoted, byasing N characters to the right
• '$TEXT'(T) like '$TEXT'(T, 0)
• '$TEXTQ'(T, N) Like '$TEXT'(T, N) but quoted
• '$TEXTQ'(T) like '$TEXTQ'(T, 0)
• '$POS'(Name, Term) Preserves the current write position in Name, for further usage in hacks that have Offset as argument
• '$OUTPOS' In an Offset expression, is replaced by the current write position. For example:

  '$TEXT'(T,'$OUTPOS')

  is equivalent to:

  '$POS'(my_outpos, '$TEXT'(T, my_outpos))

• '$SEEK'(T, O) Seek 0 in the current output before to print T.
• '$TAB'(T, O) Print as many spaces as needed to make O the current write position

  Defined options are:

• fixpoint(+Value) States that the replacement should be applied recursively, until no more modifications are caused by the replacement.

  Value=decreasing is the default, and means that the recursion stops if the transformed term contains more terms that could potentially match to avoid loops. If the level is a non recursive one (see level_rec/2), such value is equivalent to none.

  Value=file means that the recursion is performed over the hole file.

  Value=term means that the recursion is performed over the transformed term.

  Value=true means that the recursion is applied up to reach the fixpoint without decreasing control. If Level is a non recursive one, the recursion is performed over the hole file, otherwise the recursion is only applied over the transformed term.

  Value=none don't apply the fixpoint algorithm.

• decrease_metric(:Metric) is a predicate of arity 3 of the form predicate(+Term, +Pattern, -Size) to define the metric used to perform the decreasing control (by default pattern_size/3).