Re: [Caml-list] Sources, sinks, and unbound parameter types

["Christopher L Conway" <cconway@cs.nyu.edu>]

This looks a lot like the "Lists of Composable Functions" example
using existentials cited here last week [1].

Your comment about the type of Source and Sink being too general is
interesting. In general, you're asking for GADTs [2], though this
instance is simple enough you could possibly hack up a solution
without them.

Chris

[1] http://groups.google.com/group/fa.caml/msg/8f11bc7839aac98f
[2] http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Generalised_algebraic_datatype

On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 5:56 PM, Dario Teixeira <darioteixeira@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>  I'm looking for a way to express the composition of functional components
>  in a tree-like data structure.  Each node in the tree is either:
>
>   a) a Source, producing values "out of nowhere": unit -> 'a
>   b) a Sink, end point of the tree: 'b -> unit
>   c) a Processor, transforming values from one type to another: 'c -> 'd
>
>
>  The Ocaml type that represents a node is as follows: (pretty
>  straightforward, though I wonder if there's a way to explicitly
>  say that "Source is of 'a -> 'b where 'a must be of type unit")
>
>  type ('a, 'b) node_t =
>         | Source of (unit -> 'b)
>         | Sink of ('a -> unit)
>         | Processor of ('a -> 'b)
>
>
>  In addition, there are two types of connectors linking these nodes in the tree:
>
>   a) a Pipe, connecting one node that outputs a value of type 'a into
>      another that inputs an 'a.
>   b) a Splitter, essentially like a Pipe, but able to feed the same
>      value into multiple inputs.
>
>
>  If you'll pardon the ASCII art, here's a diagram of one such simple tree:
>
>
>  |                        ===========
>  |                        | source1 |
>  |                        ===========
>  |                             |
>  |                             |
>  |                             O Pipe
>  |                             |
>  |                             |
>  |                        ============
>  |                        | process1 |
>  |                        ============
>  |                             |
>  |                             |
>  |             ----------------O----------------
>  |             |           Splitter            |
>  |             |                               |
>  |        ===========                     ===========
>  |        |  sink1  |                     |  sink2  |
>  |        ===========                     ===========
>
>
>  Where each component node can, for example, be defined as follows:
>
>  let source1 () = 10
>  let process1 n = 2.0 *. (float_of_int n)
>  let sink1 x = Printf.printf "Sink1: %f\n" x
>  let sink2 x = Printf.printf "Sink2: %f\n" x
>
>
>  To define the tree type, I would like to express something like the code
>  below.  Note that I am trying to get to the compiler to statically enforce
>  that outputs and inputs are correctly matched type-wise.
>
>  type ('a, 'b) tree_t =
>         | Node of ('a, 'b) node_t
>         | Pipe of ('a, 'c) tree_t * ('c, 'b) tree_t
>         | Splitter of ('a, 'c) tree_t * ('c, 'b) tree_t list
>
>
>  The code above obviously won't work because of the unbound type parameter 'c.
>  (Also, please ignore for now the fact it allows splitters with an empty
>  output list -- that can easily be circumvented).
>
>  So, my question is if there is any way to express what I want?  I guess there
>  is a solution involving the creation of a syntax extension, but I'm looking
>  for a pure Ocaml way.
>
>  Thanks in advance for your time!
>  Best regards,
>  Dario Teixeira
>
>
>
>
>
>
>       ___________________________________________________________
>  Rise to the challenge for Sport Relief with Yahoo! For Good
>
>  http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  Caml-list mailing list. Subscription management:
>  http://yquem.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/caml-list
>  Archives: http://caml.inria.fr
>  Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners
>  Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs
>
>