blank-mumu

blank-mumu

The blank-mumu project is a foundational or template plugin designed for the Mumu ecosystem. Its purpose is to serve as a starting point for building additional plugins within the Mumu language and environment. The structure and design of the blank-mumu project are intended to offer developers a quick-start template, demonstrating how to organize the code for reusable, modular plugin development while adhering to best practices like separating concerns and keeping the code DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself).

Structure and Design Philosophy:

1. Modularization with Separate Functions:
   • The blank-mumu project is structured around a modular design where core functionality is separated into different files, particularly in the register directory. This directory contains individual files (hello.rs, bye.rs) that each handle the registration of different functions (blank:hello, blank:bye) in the Mumu language.
   • By organizing functionality into individual files and functions, blank-mumu aims to demonstrate how to maintain separation of concerns. This approach allows future plugins to extend and modify their functionality with minimal interference, making it easy to scale and maintain code.
   • Each function (e.g., blank:hello, blank:bye) is kept simple but is registered with the interpreter to be used by the Mumu language environment. This modular approach ensures that additional functions can be easily added or modified without disturbing the core structure.
2. The Role of register Directory:
   • The register directory plays a crucial role in organizing and isolating the functionality that directly interacts with the Mumu environment. Each submodule in this folder (like hello.rs and bye.rs) is responsible for registering a specific function that will be exposed to the Mumu interpreter.
   • The goal is to keep each function's logic contained in a single file, making the codebase easier to navigate and maintain. This approach is especially beneficial when working in teams or when more functionality needs to be added to the plugin. You only need to update or extend the individual modules within register without cluttering the global scope or requiring major changes to other parts of the project.
3. Main Functionality (e.g., blank:hello and blank:bye):
   • The blank:hello function demonstrates the simplest form of a function that can be executed in the Mumu environment. It simply returns the string "Hello World!!". The implementation of blank:hello is kept minimal to show how the function is registered with the interpreter and how it can be invoked.
   • The blank:bye function operates similarly by returning the string "Sorry to see you go!!", serving as another example of how to register a function and provide a response in the language.
   • Both functions are self-contained in their respective files (hello.rs and bye.rs), allowing for a single responsibility (SRP) within each file. This clean separation makes the codebase more understandable and encourages best practices like modularity and reusability.
4. DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself):
   • One of the key technical goals behind the blank-mumu design is to emphasize the DRY principle. This principle states that each piece of knowledge or logic should have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within the system.
   • In the blank-mumu plugin, we see this in the registration process of each function. The logic to register a function (e.g., blank:hello) is abstracted into the register_blank_hello function, and similarly for the blank:bye function. These functions share common registration logic, ensuring that code isn’t duplicated across different areas of the plugin.
   • This abstraction also allows future plugins to follow a similar pattern and structure, making it easier to maintain and extend the Mumu ecosystem. If, in the future, a new plugin needs a function to be registered, it can follow the exact same process demonstrated in blank-mumu, thus adhering to the DRY principle.
5. Interfacing with Mumu's Interpreter:
   • Both functions, blank:hello and blank:bye, are registered to the Mumu interpreter, which is the core component of the Mumu ecosystem. The interpreter acts as the environment where Mumu code is parsed and executed.
   • The Cargo_lock function, located in lib.rs, is a special function that registers all necessary functions (in this case, both blank:hello and blank:bye) into the Mumu environment when the plugin is loaded.
   • This function is also marked as #[no_mangle], which ensures that the function's name is not changed during compilation and remains consistent across the plugin and the Mumu interpreter, facilitating proper dynamic linking.
6. Extendability:
   • The blank-mumu plugin’s structure ensures that adding new functions is straightforward. To add a new function (e.g., blank:greet), you would simply:
     • Create a new file in the register directory (e.g., greet.rs).
     • Define the function registration logic in that file.
     • Import the function into lib.rs and register it in the Cargo_lock function.
   • This structure ensures that extending the plugin with new features requires minimal changes to the core logic and adheres to a consistent pattern.

Potential Use Case:

• blank-mumu can be used as a template for building custom Mumu plugins in various domains. For example, a database plugin could follow the same structure: create separate files for registering functions like db:connect, db:query, etc., and then use the same mechanism to register those functions in the Mumu environment.
• Similarly, an HTTP server plugin could have a file like server.rs that registers functions such as server:start, server:stop, and so on.

Technical Benefits of This Approach:

1. Scalability: As new functions are added, they are isolated within their own files, making it easy to scale the functionality of the plugin.
2. Maintainability: Code for registering each function is self-contained, reducing the chances of conflicts and making the code easier to update or refactor.
3. Clarity and Organization: By organizing the registration logic into clear submodules (e.g., register::hello, register::bye), developers can quickly identify where to find specific functionality within the plugin.
4. Reusability: The design pattern used in blank-mumu is easy to replicate across other plugins, promoting reusable components and reducing redundant code.

Conclusion:

The blank-mumu project serves as an essential boilerplate for Mumu plugin development. By emphasizing modularity, separation of concerns, and DRY principles, it ensures that new developers can quickly get started with creating Mumu plugins, while also providing a solid foundation for future feature additions. The clean structure allows for easy maintenance and scalability, making it a powerful template for the Mumu ecosystem.