Execute command block in primitive in NetLogo extension - api

Question

I'm writing a primitive that takes in two agentsets and a command block. It needs to call a few functions, execute the command block in the current context, and then call another function. Here's what I have so far:
class WithContext(pushGraphContext: GraphContext => Unit, popGraphContext: api.World => GraphContext)
extends api.DefaultCommand {
override def getSyntax = commandSyntax(
Array(AgentsetType, AgentsetType, CommandBlockType))
def perform(args: Array[Argument], context: Context) {
val turtleSet = args(0).getAgentSet.requireTurtleSet
val linkSet = args(1).getAgentSet.requireLinkSet
val world = linkSet.world
val gc = new GraphContext(world, turtleSet, linkSet)
val extContext = context.asInstanceOf[ExtensionContext]
val nvmContext = extContext.nvmContext
pushGraphContext(gc)
// execute command block here
popGraphContext(world)
}
}
I looked at some examples that used nvmContext.runExclusively, but that looked like it's specifically for having a given agentset run the command block. I want the current agent (possibly the observer) to run it. Should I wrap nvm.agent in an agentset and pass that to nvmContext.runExclusively? If so, what's the easiest way to wrap an agent in agentset? If not, what should I do?

Answer 1

Method #1
The quicker-but-arguably-dirtier method is to use runExclusiveJob, as demonstrated in (e.g.) the create-red-turtles command in https://github.com/NetLogo/Sample-Scala-Extension/blob/master/src/SampleScalaExtension.scala .
To wrap the current agent in an agentset, you can use agent.AgentSetBuilder. (You could also pass an Array[Agent] of length 1 to one of the ArrayAgentSet constructors, but I'd recommend AgentSetBuilder since it's less reliant on internal implementation details which are likely to change.)
Method #2
The disadvantage of method #1 is the slight constant overhead associated with creating and setting up the extra AgentSet, Job, and Context objects and directing execution through them.
Creating and running a separate job isn't actually how built-in commands like if and while work. Instead of making a new job, they remain in the current job and cause commands in a command block to run (or not run) by manipulating the instruction pointer (nvm.Context.ip) to jump into them or skip over them.
I believe an extension command could do the same. I'm not certain if it has been tried before, but I can't see any reason it wouldn't work.
Doing it this way would involve understanding more about NetLogo engine internals, as documented at https://github.com/NetLogo/NetLogo/wiki/Engine-architecture . You'd model your primitive after e.g. https://github.com/NetLogo/NetLogo/blob/5.0.x/src/main/org/nlogo/prim/etc/_if.java , including altering your implementation of nvm.CustomAssembled. (Note that prim._extern, which runs extension commands, delegates its assemble method to the wrapped command's own assemble method, so this should work.) In your assemble method, instead of calling done() at the end to terminate the job, you'd just allow execution to fall through.
I could try to construct an example that works this way, but it'd take me a couple hours; it's probably not worth me doing unless there's a real need.