[ANN] lazy.rb

[MenTaLguY]

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I've got an 0.0 release of lazy.rb, an implementation of lazy evaluation
for Ruby, up here:

http://moonbase.rydia.net/software/lazy/

It provides two functions: promise (like R5 Scheme's delay) and force
(just as in Scheme).

promise takes a block to evaluate later; as an aid to circular
programming, the block's result is passed to it as a parameter.

force is used to force the value of a promised computation.

Some attempts have been made to support implicit forcing through the use
of SimpleDelegator, but with only mixed success so far.

-mental

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[Pit Capitain]

I've got an 0.0 release of lazy.rb, an implementation of lazy evaluation
for Ruby, up here:

http://moonbase.rydia.net/software/lazy/

It provides two functions: promise (like R5 Scheme's delay) and force
(just as in Scheme).

promise takes a block to evaluate later; as an aid to circular
programming, the block's result is passed to it as a parameter.

force is used to force the value of a promised computation.

Some attempts have been made to support implicit forcing through the use
of SimpleDelegator, but with only mixed success so far.

Hi mental,

do you have some unit tests or an example where implicit forcing isn't
working as you'd like?

Regards,
Pit

 

[MenTaLguY]

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Hi mental,
=20
do you have some unit tests or an example where implicit forcing isn't=20
working as you'd like?

Err... unit tests. Those would be nice.

But, here are a couple examples:

blah =3D promise { 3 }
p blah.methods.include? "+" # =3D> false, failed to force
force( blah )
p blah.methods.include? "+" # =3D> true

...and:

foo =3D promise { 3 }
begin
p [][foo] # TypeError: can't convert Lazy::Thunk into Integer
rescue TypeError =3D> e
puts e
end
force( foo )
p [][foo] # =3D> nil

Same problem in both cases, basically.

Oh, and if you try these in irb, remember that you will get different
results because irb's attempt to display the result value will force the
promise.

-mental

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[Pit Capitain]

...
Same problem in both cases, basically.

Here's another implementation that doesn't have these problems:

module Lazy #:nodoc: all
class Thunk
instance_methods.each { |m| undef_method m unless m =~ /^__/ }
def initialize( &computation )
@computation = computation
end
def method_missing( *args, &block )
( @result ||= @computation.call( self ) ).send( *args, &block )
end
end
end

Regards,
Pit

 

[Trans]

Here's another implementation that doesn't have these problems:

module Lazy #:nodoc: all
class Thunk
instance_methods.each { |m| undef_method m unless m =~ /^__/ }
def initialize( &computation )
@computation = computation
end
def method_missing( *args, &block )
( @result ||= @computation.call( self ) ).send( *args, &block )
end
end
end

Ah, that clarifies things. This is essentially a pass-thru Functor with
a cached result. (Why is 'self' being passed to the computation
though?) While not quite the same as the implict lambda's I suggested,
it is interesting just how similar they are.

This whole Functor paradigm, including things like #every, #enum_for,
#as (was #superfunc), etc. and now this --all are various simple
decorators of a special form where the heart of code is some sort of
transfomation in method_missing. Insteresting stuff. It would be even
more interesting to see if this could somehow be embodied in core so to
operate more efficiently (and perhaps a syntax variation on the
methods?) --this techinque may have potential for roles and namespace
selectors too.

T.

 

[MenTaLguY]

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(Why is 'self' being passed to the computation though?)

For convenience in circular programming; it's an easier way for the
computation to get access to its own future result.

Rather than having to do:

result =3D nil
result =3D promise {
... do something with result ...
}

It allows simply:

promise { |result|
... do something with result ...
}

-mental

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[MenTaLguY]

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=20
Here's another implementation that doesn't have these problems:
=20
module Lazy #:nodoc: all
class Thunk
instance_methods.each { |m| undef_method m unless m =3D~ /^__/ }
def initialize( &computation )
@computation =3D computation
end
def method_missing( *args, &block )
( @result ||=3D @computation.call( self ) ).send( *args, &block = )
end
end
end

Hmm, I can adapt this, I think. Thanks. It does have a few problems as
written; e.g.:

1. since @computation isn't set to nil after being run, the closure
can't get garbage collected until the thunk is

2. the computation will get run multiple times if its result is nil
or false

3. There's no way to unwrap the value from the thunk

But I think you got me over the hump. Look for another lazy.rb release
soonish.

-mental

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[Devin Mullins]

2. the computation will get run multiple times if its result is nil
or false

Use defined?

3. There's no way to unwrap the value from the thunk

What's in a value? That which we call a String by any other class would
#to_s as neat.

Devin