module Cf_state_gadget:sig
..end
Monadic composition of complex stream processors. An experimental interface for constructing interactive functional systems in a single thread of control.
This module implements a marginally more general version of the Gadget system described in Chapter 30 of Magnus Carlsson's and Thomas Hallgren's joint Ph.D. thesis.
In the context of this module, a "gadget" is a monad that evaluates into
a Cf_flow
object, capable of alternately reading from a source of input
values and writing to a sink of output values. The continuation monad is
specialized over an abstract "process" monad type, and a scheduler handles
the calls and jumps between multiple simultaneous processes communicating
with one another over a very lightweight message passing abstraction called
a "wire".
The abstract process monad is a kind of state-continuation monad for
operations over the internal Cf_flow
value. The operations it supports
are lifted into the gadget monad, as are briefly sumamrized as follows:
A wire is logically composed of a receiver and a transmitter, with weak mutual references between them. When either end of the wire is reclaimed by the memory allocator, the other end is automatically rendered into a null wire, i.e. receivers never get messages and transmitters put messages by discarding them.
A pair of classes are provided to represent the receiver and the
transmitter on a wire. Objects of the rx
class define a get
method for
creating a "gate" that can receive a message. Objects of the tx
class
define a put
method for transmitting a message. Both objects can be
constructed with a wire object, and a convenience operators are defined for
creating a new wire and construction a pair of associated rx
and tx
objects.
Each process contains an encapsulated state, initialized to a value when the process is started. As a process receives and transmits messages, it can easily manipulate this encapsulated state. When a process has no more messages to receive or transmit, the scheduler reclaims its resources and the final state is discarded.
Any process may read from the internal input stream or write to the external output stream. Conventionally, it is often simpler to define a a reader process and a writer process to localize these effects.
Note: see Magnus Carlsson's and Thomas Hallgren's joint Ph.D. thesis for a complete dissertation on the nature of the system of concepts behind this module.
type ('s, 'i, 'o)
work
An functionally compositional unit of work in a gadget. It encapsulates the state-continuation monad for a work loop.
type ('s, 'i, 'o)
gate
A gate for receiving messages in a process of type ('s, 'i, 'o) work
using the guard
function.
type ('x, 'i, 'o)
wire
An object capable of delivering messages of type 'x
from a sender to a
a receiver in a ('s, 'i, 'o) work
continuation.
type('s, 'i, 'o, 'a)
guard =(('s, 'i, 'o) gate, 'a) Cf_cmonad.t
A guard for receiving a message from one or more sources.
type('s, 'i, 'o, 'a)
t =(('s, 'i, 'o) work, 'a) Cf_cmonad.t
A continuation monad parameterized by process type.
val eval : ('s, 'i, 'o, unit) t -> 's -> ('i, 'o) Cf_flow.t
Use eval y s
to obtain a new flow by evaluating the gadget monad y
with
a state initializer of a
.
val start : ('s0, 'i, 'o, unit) t ->
's0 -> ('s1, 'i, 'o, unit) t
Bind the result of start y s
to start a new process evaluating the gadget
y
with a state initializer s
.
val guard : ('s, 'i, 'o, unit) guard ->
('s, 'i, 'o, 'a) t
Use guard m
to receive the next message guarded by m
. Control will
pass to the continuation of the first gate in the guard to receive a
message. If no gates in the guard are able to receive a message, i.e. the
guard is either empty or all of the gates are on wires that have no
transmitters anymore, then control is returned to the scheduler.
val abort : ('s, 'i, 'o, 'a) t
Use abort
to abort processing and return to the scheduler. Control will
not be passed to any continuation bound to the result.
val wire : ('s, 'i, 'o, ('x, 'i, 'o) wire) t
Use wire
to return a new wire for carrying messages of type 'x
.
val wirepair : ('s, 'i, 'o,
('x, 'i, 'o) wire * ('y, 'i, 'o) wire)
t
Use wirepair
to return a pair of new wires for carrying messages of type
'x
and 'y
.
val null : ('x, 'i, 'o) wire
Use null
to construct a rx
object that produces gates that never
receive any messages, and a tx
object that discards every message
transmitted without deliver it. This object can be useful for default
arguments to some gadget functions.
val read : ('s, 'i, 'o, 'i) t
Bind read
to get the next input value from the external stream.
val write : 'o -> ('s, 'i, 'o, unit) t
Bind the result of write obj
to put the next output value into the
external stream.
val load : ('s, 'i, 'o, 's) t
Bind load
to get the current state encapsulated in the process.
val store : 's -> ('s, 'i, 'o, unit) t
Bind the result of store obj
to store the state obj
as the encapsulated
state for the current monad.
val modify : ('s -> 's) -> ('s, 'i, 'o, unit) t
Bind the result of modify f
to apply f
to the current encapsulated
state of the process and store the resulting new state.
class type connector =object
..end
The class type of connector objects.
class[['x, 'i, 'o]]
rx :('x, 'i, 'o) wire ->
object
..end
The class of receiver objects.
class[['x, 'i, 'o]]
tx :('x, 'i, 'o) wire ->
object
..end
The class of transmitter objects.
val simplex : ('s, 'i, 'o,
('x, 'i, 'o) rx * ('x, 'i, 'o) tx)
t
Use simplex
to construct a new maching pair of rx
and tx
objects.
type('x, 'y, 'i, 'o)
pad =('x, 'i, 'o) rx * ('y, 'i, 'o) tx
A pair of convenience types for representing each end of a bundle of two wires used for duplex communication.
type('x, 'y, 'i, 'o)
fix =('y, 'i, 'o) rx * ('x, 'i, 'o) tx
val duplex : ('s, 'i, 'o,
('x, 'y, 'i, 'o) pad * ('x, 'y, 'i, 'o) fix)
t
Use duplex
to construct a new duplex communication channel, composed of
two wires each in opposite flow. A matching head and tail of the channel
is returned.
val wrap : ('x, 'i, 'o) #rx ->
('y, 'i, 'o) #tx ->
('x, 'y) Cf_flow.t -> ('s, 'i, 'o, unit) t
Use wrap rx tx w
to start a new process that wraps the flow w
, so that
it reads output from the flow (copying it to tx
object) and writes input
to the flow (copying it from the rx
object).