erl_aliases is an Erlang parse transformation library that provides a simple and straightforward interface for defining (shorter) aliases for (longer) record and module names. Once defined, aliases can be used instead of the original names.

Global Erlang record and module names tend to be relatively long. Long names are usually more descriptive and help to keep names unique across different Erlang applications. However, long names can sometimes be cumbersome inside application code.

For instance, it can be fairly annoying to type a long record name every time just to access a field. But more importantly, long record and module names make code less readable.

    % include a header that specifies Erl_aliases parse transformation function
    -include_lib("erl_aliases.hrl").
    ...

    -record(long_record_name, {...}). % an Erlang record definition
    ...

    % define alias 'r' for the previously defined record 'long_record_name':
    -record_alias({r, long_record_name}).
    ...

    % define alias 'm' for module 'long_module_name':
    -module_alias({m, long_module_name}).
    ...

After that, r can be used instead of long_record_name in operations with records, and m instead of long_module_name in module context.

When an Erlang module that uses erl_aliases is compiled, its input AST is automatically gets transformed as follows.

• All record and module aliases appearing in valid contexts are renamed back to their original names.
• Alias definitions are removed from the input AST.

There are several restrictions.

• Aliases can only be defined for original record and module names. An alias can not be defined for another alias.
• Record aliases are not allowed to mask previously defined record names and vice versa.

If any of the above restrictions is violated, compilation will fail and an error message will be printed.

Parse transformations do not work in Erlang interactive shell.

Defined record aliases can not be used inside -spec and -record forms.

Using aliases with is_record and record_info built-in functions is not supported but may be added later.

erl_aliases is written by Anton Lavrik [email protected]

erl_aliases is distributed under the terms of a MIT license. See the LICENSE file for details.