When are phaser traits run? - traits

The will phaser trait examples show this code:
our $h will enter { .rememberit() } will undo { .forgetit() };
Which is either misunderstood or simply not a real use case. If it's misunderstood, I would say it enters the block with it's assigned a variable. If it's not a real use case, it calls a method on an undefined variable. This is what seems to happen:
our &doing-good will enter {
say( "running" );
if Backtrace.new.grep: { .subname ~~ /bad/ } {
fail("Not authorized to call this");
}
};
This is simply run when the definition is made, that is, when what exactly is entered? The MAIN scope?
This is probably the documentation fault. It's very likely that phaser traits can't really be applied to variables, but above, when it's actually a block, it's not really run; the "phaser" is run when something that's totally independent of the variable definition of value happens, at least in this case. Any idea?

The "phaser traits" as you call them, will be run at the same time as other phasers of the same name.
The will trait on a variable basically sets up phasers in its surrounding scope, with the variable passed as the only positional parameter. So
my $h will enter { dd $_ };
is functionally equivalent to:
my $h;
ENTER { dd $h }
In your example:
our &doing-good will enter { ... }
you are defining a variable &doing-good that will be passed to the block that is specified. In your example, I do not see that variable getting initialized, so the block will receive a Callable type object (because that is what &doing-good will contain if it is not initialized).

My understanding is that the will trait is exactly the same as a the matching phaser – with the single difference that it has access to the variable as its topic. Thus the will enter and the ENTER below are very similar, and both execute when the containing scope is entered.
ENTER { note "ENTER phaser with topic $_.VAR.WHAT.raku()" }
my $a will enter { note "will enter with topic $_.VAR.WHAT.raku()"; $_ = 42 };
note 'main';
note "\$a: $a";
which prints:
ENTER phaser with topic Scalar
will enter with topic Scalar
main
$a: 42
Put differently, there's not a distinct "enter" phase that occurs for the variable; it's just referencing the ENTER phase of the containing scope.

Related

Apply a proxy to a variable (not an attribute) using traits

This question is a near-duplicate of Apply a proxy using traits. However, that question dealt with applying a proxy to an Attribute, and I would like to do the same thing for a Variable. From Jonathan's answer, I understand that I
need to arrange for the Proxy to be bound into the attribute, so that there's a Proxy there rather than a Scalar container that is usually created by class initialization logic.
However, I can't seem to bind successfully to a Variable:D, even at compile time. (Including with nqp::bind). I'd greatly appreciate any pointers in the correct direction.
(Ideally, I'd like to support using the variable/trait with assignment syntax. In a perfect world, I'd have syntax like:
my $thing is custom-proxy = 42;
And the result of that would be that $thing is containerized inside the Proxy, but not in a Scalar. But if that's not possible, I'd settle for getting it working with binding via :=.
[EDIT: building on the accepted answer below, it is possible to mostly do this with the following code:
multi trait_mod:<is>(Variable \v, :$tom) {
v.block.add_phaser(
'ENTER',
v.willdo(<-> $_ {
$_ = Proxy.new:
STORE => -> $, $v { say "store $v" },
FETCH => { say "fetch!"; 42}
}, 1))
}
This works for variables that are not initialized to a different value or for state variables on calls to the function other than the first.
You can always bind.
my $actual-thing = 42;
my $thing := Proxy.new(
FETCH => anon method fetch () {
say 'fetch';
$actual-thing
},
STORE => anon method store ($new) {
say 'store ',$new;
$actual-thing = $new
}
);
say $thing;
$thing = 5;
say $thing;
Which currently results in the following.
fetch
fetch
fetch
fetch
fetch
fetch
fetch
42
store 5
fetch
fetch
fetch
fetch
fetch
fetch
fetch
5
(The repeated FETCH calls are a known limitation.)
If you wanted to have syntax like
my $thing is custom-proxy = 42;
You would need to start with
multi trait_mod:<is> ( Variable:D \var, :$custom-proxy! ){
…
}
The problem is that currently doing it this way requires a lot of deep Rakudo/nqp knowledge that I do not possess.
For example the code behind my $var is default('value') looks a bit like this:
multi sub trait_mod:<is>(Variable:D $v, Mu :$default!) {
my $var := $v.var;
my $what := $var.VAR.WHAT;
my $descriptor;
{
$descriptor := nqp::getattr($var, $what.^mixin_base, '$!descriptor');
CATCH {
my $native = $v.native($what);
…
}
}
…
$descriptor.set_default(nqp::decont($default));
# make sure we start with the default if a scalar
$var = $default if nqp::istype($what, Scalar);
}
Why does that have $what.^mixin_base?
I have no idea.
Why isn't $!descriptor accessible something like $v.var.descriptor?
I have no idea.
How do we change $v.var.VAR from a Scalar to a Proxy?
I have no idea.
Is that last one doable? (From within a trait_mod:<is>)
I am fairly certain that the answer is yes.
My 2d[1]:
I'd settle for getting it working with binding via :=.
sub custom-proxy is rw { Proxy.new: FETCH => { 42 }, STORE => { ... } }
my $variable := custom-proxy;
say $variable; # 42
In a perfect world, I'd have syntax like:
my $thing is custom-proxy = 42;
Aiui, that's #Larry's intent.
But, as you presumably know, if a type (eg role custom-proxy { ... }) is applied using an is trait to a scalar variable (eg my $variable is custom-proxy) then the compiler emits a compile time error message (is trait on $-sigil variable not yet implemented).
I can't seem to bind successfully to a Variable:D, even at compile time
First, let's clarify what a Variable is, and what you would need to successfully bind to:
multi trait_mod:<is>(Variable \var, :$foo!) { say var.var.VAR.WHAT } # (Scalar)
my $variable is foo;
You might think you could bind to var. But the compiler is passing an lvalue, so you're not going to be able to alter it.
You might think you could bind to var.var, which is an attribute of a Variable. (I explain what a Variable is, and its var attribute, and why I had to write "varvarVAR!" in the above code, here.)
The SO you linked shows how to alter the value bound to an attribute in some object:
$a.set_build: -> \SELF, | {
$a.set_value: SELF, Proxy.new:
STORE => -> $, $val { say "store $val" },
FETCH => { say "fetch!"; 42 }
}
So perhaps you could use that approach to alter the .var attribute of a Variable?
Unfortunately, "setting build logic" is used to "bind the attribute ... at each object creation", (hence "you'll be overriding any initial default value").
So I don't think this technique is going to help in this case because the Variable, and hence its .var attribute, has presumably already been built by the time the Variable is passed to the is trait.
In summary, while a trait is called at compile-time, I think it's called too late because the var attribute has already been permanently bound.
My guess is that altering Raku(do) so that the Variable's .var attribute becomes writable, or using metaprogramming to dive underneath Variable's public API to force through a change, would be beyond fraught, unreasonably complicating the compiler's variable handling code and/or swapping out codegen optimization logic for pessimization logic.
This may be behind #Larry's speculation that a more controlled is type on scalar variables will one day be implemented.
Footnotes
[1] My two (pennies | dogecoin).

Using $/ is not exactly the same as using any other variable in grammar actions

In theory, and according to the documentation, you can use any argument for methods in grammar actions.
grammar G {
token TOP { \w+ }
}
class Action-Arg {
method TOP ($match) { $match.make: ~$match }
}
class Action {
method TOP ($/) { make ~$/ }
}
class Action-Fails {
method TOP ($match) { make ~$match }
}
say G.parse( "zipi", actions => Action-Arg );
say G.parse( "zape", actions => Action );
say G.parse( "pantuflo", actions => Action-Fails );
However, the two first versions work as expected. But the third one (which would be a direct translation of the second), fails with
Cannot bind attributes in a Nil type object
in method TOP at match-and-match.p6 line 19
in regex TOP at match-and-match.p6 line 7
in block <unit> at match-and-match.p6 line 24
There's probably some special syntax going on (in the sense of make being actually $/.make, probably), but I'd just like to clarify if this is according to spec or is a bug.
That is because the make subroutine is one of those rare cases in Rakudo where it actually tries to access the $/ variable from the scope it is called from. Which is also how it is documented:
The sub form operates on the current $/
(from the documentation)

More concise way to build a configuration class using environment variables?

I have a class Configuration that reads in environment variables:
class Configuration {
has $.config_string_a;
has $.config_string_b;
has Bool $.config_flag_c;
method new() {
sub assertHasEnv(Str $envVar) {
die "environment variable $envVar must exist" unless %*ENV{$envVar}:exists;
}
assertHasEnv('CONFIG_STRING_A');
assertHasEnv('CONFIG_STRING_B');
assertHasEnv('CONFIG_FLAG_C');
return self.bless(
config_string_a => %*ENV{'CONFIG_STRING_A'},
config_string_b => %*ENV{'CONFIG_STRING_B'},
config_flag_c => Bool(%*ENV{'CONFIG_FLAG_C'}),
);
}
}
my $config = Configuration.new;
say $config.config_string_a;
say $config.config_string_b;
say $config.config_flag_c;
Is there a more concise way to express this? For example, I am repeating the environment variable name in the check and the return value of the constructor.
I could easily see writing another, more generic class that encapsulates the necessary info for a config parameter:
class ConfigurationParameter {
has $.name;
has $.envVarName;
has Bool $.required;
method new (:$name, :$envVarName, :$required = True) {
return self.bless(:$name, :$envVarName, :$required);
}
}
Then rolling these into a List in the Configuration class. However, I don't know how to refactor the constructor in Configuration to accommodate this.
The most immediate change that comes to mind is to change new to be:
method new() {
sub env(Str $envVar) {
%*ENV{$envVar} // die "environment variable $envVar must exist"
}
return self.bless(
config_string_a => env('CONFIG_STRING_A'),
config_string_b => env('CONFIG_STRING_B'),
config_flag_c => Bool(env('CONFIG_FLAG_C')),
);
}
While // is a definedness check rather than an existence one, the only way an environment variable will be undefined is if it isn't set. That gets down to one mention of %*ENV and also of each environment variable.
If there's only a few, then I'd likely stop there, but the next bit of repetition that strikes me is the names of the attributes are just lowercase of the names of the environment variables, so we could eliminate that duplication too, at the cost of a little more complexity:
method new() {
multi env(Str $envVar) {
$envVar.lc => %*ENV{$envVar} // die "environment variable $envVar must exist"
}
multi env(Str $envVar, $type) {
.key => $type(.value) given env($envVar)
}
return self.bless(
|env('CONFIG_STRING_A'),
|env('CONFIG_STRING_B'),
|env('CONFIG_FLAG_C', Bool),
);
}
Now env returns a Pair, and | flattens it in to the argument list as if it's a named argument.
Finally, the "power tool" approach is to write a trait like this outside of the class:
multi trait_mod:<is>(Attribute $attr, :$from-env!) {
my $env-name = $attr.name.substr(2).uc;
$attr.set_build(-> | {
with %*ENV{$env-name} -> $value {
Any ~~ $attr.type ?? $value !! $attr.type()($value)
}
else {
die "environment variable $env-name must exist"
}
});
}
And then write the class as:
class Configuration {
has $.config_string_a is from-env;
has $.config_string_b is from-env;
has Bool $.config_flag_c is from-env;
}
Traits run at compile time, and can manipulate a declaration in various ways. This trait calculates the name of the environment variable based on the attribute name (attribute names are always like $!config_string_a, thus the substr). The set_build sets the code that will be run to initialize the attribute when the class is created. That gets passed various things that in our situation aren't important, so we ignore the arguments with |. The with is just like if defined, so this is the same approach as the // earlier. Finally, the Any ~~ $attr.type check asks if the parameter is constrained in some way, and if it is, performs a coercion (done by invoking the type with the value).
So I mentioned this in a comment but I figured it would be good as an actual answer. I figured this would be useful functionality for anyone building a Docker based system so took Jonanthan's example code, added some functionality for exporting Traits Elizabeth showed me and made Trait::Env
Usage is :
use Trait::Env;
class Configuration {
has $.config_string_a is env;
has $.config-string-b is env(:required);
has Bool $.config-flag-c is env is default(True);
}
The :required flag turns on die if not found. And it plays nicely with the is default trait. Attribute names are upper cased and - is replaced with _ before checking %*ENV.
I have a couple of planned changes, make it throw a named Exception rather than just die and handle Boolean's a bit better. As %*ENV is Strings having a Boolean False is a bit of a pain.

Blockly How to create a Variable to the workspace (developer variable)

I want to create a Developer Variable to the workspace in Blockly, but I cannot find the necessary function/method.
I do not want to create the variable over a button. The variable should be included even if there is no block in the workspace.
With these two functions I can get the already created variables:
var variables = workspace.getAllVariables();
var dev_var = Blockly.Variables.allDeveloperVariables(workspace);
But what is the setting function?
Developer variables are variables that will never be visible to the user, but will exist in the generated code. If that's what you're looking for: there's no API for it, but here are some things you can do.
If you want to reserve the name so that users can't accidentally override your variable, call yourGenerator.addReservedWords('var1,var2,...'). You can initialize the variable in your wrapper code.
If you really want Blockly to both reserve and declare the variable for you, you could override the init function on your generator.
On the other hand, if what you want is a user-visible variable that always shows up in the toolbox, without the user creating it, you should call yourWorkspace.createVariable('variable_name').
The unit test blocks all assume that the variable unittestResults exists and can be written to. To indicate this, the block definition includes the function getDeveloperVars, which returns an array of strings. Each string is a variable name.Follow this issue in gtihub
Blockly.Blocks['unittest_fail'] = {
// Always assert an error.
init: function() {
this.setColour(65);
this.setPreviousStatement(true);
this.setNextStatement(true);
this.appendDummyInput()
.appendField(new Blockly.FieldTextInput('test name'), 'MESSAGE')
.appendField('fail');
this.setTooltip('Records an error.');
},
getDeveloperVars: function() {
return ['unittestResults'];
}
};
LINK : https://github.com/google/blockly/issues/1535

Are there Rust variable naming conventions for things like Option<T>?

Is there a convention for variable naming in cases like the following? I find myself having to have two names, one the optional and one for the unwrapped.
let user = match optional_user {
Some(u) => {
u
}
None => {
new("guest", "guest").unwrap()
}
};
I'm unsure if there is a convention per say, but I often see (and use) maybe for Options. i.e.
let maybe_thing: Option<Thing> = ...
let thing: Thing = ...
Also, in regards to your use of u and user in this situation, it is fine to use user in both places. i.e.
let user = match maybe_user {
Some(user) => user,
...
This is because the match expression will be evaluated prior to the let assignment.
However (slightly off topic) #Manishearth is correct, in this case it would be nicer to use or_else. i.e.
let user = maybe_user.or_else(|| new("guest", "guest")).unwrap();
I'd recommend becoming familiar with the rest of Option's methods too as they are excellent for reducing match boilerplate.
If you're going to use a variable to initialize another and you don't need to use the first variable anymore, you can use the same name for both variables.
let user = /* something that returns Option<?> */;
let user = match user {
Some(u) => {
u
}
None => {
new("guest", "guest").unwrap()
}
};
In the initializer for the second let binding, the identifier user resolves to the first user variable, rather than the one being defined, because that one is not initialized yet. Variables defined in a let statement only enter the scope after the whole let statement. The second user variable shadows the first user variable for the rest of the block, though.
You can also use this trick to turn a mutable variable into an immutable variable:
let mut m = HashMap::new();
/* fill m */
let m = m; // freeze m
Here, the second let doesn't have the mut keyword, so m is no longer mutable. Since it's also shadowing m, you no longer have mutable access to m (though you can still add a let mut later on to make it mutable again).
Firstly, your match block can be replaced by optional_user.or_else(|| new("guest", "guest")).unwrap()
Usually for destructures where the destructured variable isn't used in a large block, a short name like u is common. However it would be better to call it user if the block was larger with many statements.