From 98e81b98e98d9ed31383716f4e0a5b372389fea2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Emery Hemingway <ehmry@posteo.net>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2022 21:48:08 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Improve lib.generators.toPreserves

- Generate dictionaries with symbol keys. This breaks lossless
  JSON conversion but is consistent with Preserves in the wild.
- New record pattern: ``[ 1 2 3 { record = "foo"; } ]``.
---
 lib.nix | 43 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------
 1 file changed, 31 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lib.nix b/lib.nix
index cea1ef7..1aa490d 100644
--- a/lib.nix
+++ b/lib.nix
@@ -5,31 +5,50 @@ in with lib; {
   generators = with final.generators;
     prev.generators // {
 
-      # Generates Preserves from an arbitrary value.
-      # Records are generated for functions that take
-      # a single formal argument `toRecord` and return
-      # a list of values.
+      /* Generates text-encoded Preserves from an arbitrary value.
+
+         Records are generated for lists with a final element in
+         the form of `{ record = «label»; }`.
+
+         Type: toPreserves :: a -> string
+
+         Example:
+           toPreserves { } [{ a = 0; b = 1; } "c" [ true false ] { record = "foo"; }]
+           => "<foo { a: 0 b: 1 } \"c\" [ #t #f ]>"
+      */
       toPreserves = { }@args:
         let
           toPreserves' = toPreserves args;
           concatItems = toString;
+          recordLabel = list:
+            with builtins;
+            let len = length list;
+            in if len == 0 then
+              null
+            else
+              let end = elemAt list (len - 1);
+              in if (isAttrs end) && (attrNames end) == [ "record" ] then
+                end
+              else
+                null;
         in v:
         if isAttrs v then
           "{ ${
             concatItems (lib.attrsets.mapAttrsToList
-              (key: val: "${builtins.toJSON key}: ${toPreserves' val}") v)
+              (key: val: "${key}: ${toPreserves' val}") v)
           } }"
         else if isList v then
-          "[ ${concatItems (map toPreserves' v)} ]"
+          let label = recordLabel v;
+          in if label == null then
+            "[ ${concatItems (map toPreserves' v)} ]"
+          else
+            "<${label.record} ${
+              concatItems (map toPreserves' (lib.lists.init v))
+            }>"
         else if isBool v then
           (if v then "#t" else "#f")
         else if isFunction v then
-          (if (lib.functionArgs v) == { toRecord = false; } then
-            let items = v { toRecord = null; };
-            in "<${head items} ${toString (map toPreserves' (tail items))}>"
-          else
-            abort
-            "generators.toPreserves: cannot convert a function to Preserves")
+          abort "generators.toPreserves: cannot convert a function to Preserves"
         else if isNull v then
           "null"
         else