nim-wiki/Nim-for-Python-Programmers.md at b4ea9f47dbac32848d0f89b7e875df49d2cda350

6.0 KiB

Raw Blame History

DISCLAIMER!
Unofficial, work in progress! This is still a stub. Please help extending it. There may be inaccuracies in this guide.

Inheritance

A Python programmer when first trying Nim can try to write something like this:

# TODO: extend this example with the declaration of the objects w/o ref
var heterogeneousArray: seq[ParentObjectType] = @[]
# TODO: Add an object inheriting from ParentObjectType to the seq

That will return a compilation error, because the objects have different sizes. Like in C, you can't make an array of structs with disparate types and sizes. What one can do is an array of references to the objects, all references having the same size put pointing to heterogeneous objects. This is what Python does by default.

# TODO: Show the proper way to do things, with emphasis on what changed

So, when using inheritance, be sure to inherit using refs, unless you know what you are doing. Also, check out Nim's generic programming capabilities as an alternative to OOP and inheritance.

This is a guide for people with experience in Python or a similar language. The guide assumes some intermediate knowledge.

The general tutorials can be found here:
http://nim-lang.org/tut1.html
http://nim-lang.org/tut2.html

The manual provides a more or less complete overview of the language: http://nim-lang.org/manual.html

At a glance

Similarities and differences.

Feature	Python	Nim
Execution model	Virtual Machine	Machine code via C*
Meta-programming	Dynamic language	Nim (const/when/template/macro)
Memory Management	Garbage-collected	Garbage-collected and manual
Types	Dynamic	Static
Dependent types	-	Partial support
Generics	-	Yes
int8/16/32/64 types	No	Yes
Bigints	Yes (transparently)	Yes (via nimble package)
Arrays	Yes	Yes
Bounds-checking	Yes	Yes
Type inference	-	Yes (extensive support)
Closures	Yes	Yes
Operator Overloading	Yes	Yes (on any types)
Custom Operators	No	Yes
Object-Oriented	Yes	Minimalistic**
Methods	Yes	Yes
Multi-Methods	No	Yes
Exceptions	Yes	Yes

Philosophy

The key to understanding Nim is that Nim was designed to be as fast as C, but to be much safer. Many of the design-decisions are based on making it harder to shoot yourself in the foot. In Python there are no pointers (everything is treated as a reference). While Nim does give you pointers, Nim gives you other, safer tools for your everyday needs, while pointers are mostly reserved for interfacing with C and doing low-level system programming.

Contrarily to Python, most Nim code can be executed at compile time to perform meta-programming.

Arrays

In Nim, arrays are much more strict. They are pass-by-value (meaning they're copied at assignment). When passing an array to a proc in Nim, the argument is a read-only reference, meaning it can't be assigned to. Take the following example:

Nim:

proc foobar(z: array[0..3, int]) = 
  z[5] = 5  # Error: Cannot assign to z
  echo z[5] # Error: Index out of bounds.

var x = [1, 2, 3, 4]

foobar(x)

The Nim code will not compile. If you mean to change the array that was passed to the procedure, you can change the the signature of the procedure to proc foobar(z: var array[0..3, int]). Now you will only get index out of bounds error. If you change the index in both lines to 1, the code will compile. If the index is a variable, Nim will include run-time checks on the bounds of the array.

In C, you can pass an int[3] to the foobar function, and the compiler will not complain. In this case Nim would not compile. You can use an openarray to accept an array of any size, and you can use low(z) and high(z) to query the bounds of the array.

Nim arrays can also be indexed from any number. That is, z: array[1..4, int] is an array of int indexed from 1 to 4. Trying to access z[0] would throw an index out bounds error.

In Nim you are strongly discouraged from using pointers in Nim, and you can accomplish almost everything you'd otherwise use pointers for with normal arguments, "var" arguments, variables, and "ref".

Unsigned integers

Nim strongly discourages the use of unsigned integers, as it's considered unnecessary and somewhat unsafe* for most applications. The unsigned types uint, uint8/16/32/64 are available by default, but the arithmetic and binary functions are not defined. If you do need to do arithmetic on unsigned integers, you need to import the unsigned module.

*See: http://critical.eschertech.com/2010/04/07/danger-unsigned-types-used-here/

Object-Orientation

Objects in Nim behave quite differently from classes in Python. Objects support inheritance (not multiple inheritance). Python-like object methods do not exist; Procs are not bound to objects:

You can call a proc on objects with the anObject.foobar(), but you can do that on any type (e.g. ints and arrays) as well. You can have methods on object, but you can have methods on any types, and for all the arguments, not just the first (in C++, implicit) one.

Nim does not have an implicit self.

It is possible to implement object-orientation features from other languages (like C++,Java,etc. or Smalltalk,Obj-C,Ruby,etc.) through libraries, thanks to the extensive meta-programming features of Nim. These are at the moment mostly work-in-progress.

Structs - Tuples and Objects

Tuples are entirely different from Python

6.0 KiB Raw Blame History