Function type vs Closure type - closures

I want to create a vector of functions
let all_rerankers = vec![ match_full
, match_partial
, match_regex
, match_camel_case
];
However, match_camel_case needs one more parameter than other functions, so I though I could define a closure for match_camel_case
// 3 is the extra parameter needed by match_camel_case
let close_camel_case = |str: &str, keyword: &str| {
match_camel_case(str, keyword, 3)
};
and then specify the type of my vector:
let all_rerankers: Vec<|str: &str, kwd: &str| -> MatchScore>
= vec![ match_full
, match_partial
, match_regex
, close_camel_case
];
However compiling it shows me that Rust treats them differently:
mismatched types: expected `fn(&str, &str) -> MatchScore`,
found `|&str, &str| -> MatchScore`
(expected extern fn, found fn)
close_camel_case
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(and similar type error in my vec! macro)
It also seem to distinguish between Fn type and closure type. I can make this compile by wrapping every match_* function in a closure, but I'm sure there's a better solution.
Question:
What is the actual mismatch here? the error message seems to suggest Fn vs closure type, but then there's also expected extern fn, found fn in the error message
How can I make the type match? (namely, convert closure into fn type, since it's pure)
my rustc version: rustc 0.12.0-pre-nightly (09cebc25a 2014-09-07 00:31:28 +0000) (can upgrade if needed)

This looks like some unfortunate problem in type inference. If you do this:
let mut all_rerankers: Vec<|str: &str, kwd: &str| -> MatchScore> = Vec::new();
all_rerankers.push(match_full);
all_rerankers.push(match_partial);
all_rerankers.push(match_regex);
all_rerankers.push(close_camel_case);
Then everything is fine. The duplication is extensive, but you can easily write a macro whose invocation could look like this:
push_to!(all_rerankers;
match_full,
match_partial,
match_regex,
close_camel_case
)
This probably deserves creating an issue in Rust bug tracker, but old closures will be deprecated soon, so I'm not sure if this is worth fixing.

Related

byref return in F# 4.5

I am trying to add a F#-style interface to a type, that has a byref return method.
Here's the code:
type IPool<'P, 'T when 'T: struct> =
abstract member GetReference: ITypedPointer<'P, 'T> -> byref<'T>
let Ref<'TPool, 'P, 'T when 'TPool :> IPool<'P, 'T>> (pool: 'TPool) pointer =
pool.GetReference pointer
Now to my surprise, a similar thing worked fine until I introduced IPool interface. Before that Ref itself contained an implementation like &pool.data.[idx], and worked fine.
I tried installing nightly build of F# Tools, cause latest release does not officially support byref returns, and PR to introduce them was recently completed: https://github.com/Microsoft/visualfsharp/pull/4888
However, I still get error FS3209: The address of the variable 'copyOfStruct' cannot be used at this point. A method or function may not return the address of this local value. in Visual Studio. Type outref<T> still does not seem to be available either. Am I missing something?
I also tried to drop the pointer parameter, and just return pool.GetReference to only get a different error message.
Addition: the ultimate goal is to be able to do
let aref = Ref pool ptr
let bref = Ref pool ptr
aref <- 42
assert(aref = bref)
e.g. give caller a direct reference to an internal memory, usually backed by an array, similar to Span<T>. I am making this for performance reasons, so it is not OK to allocate on every call to Ref.
For some reason, reducing generalization helped to get rid of the error:
let Ref<'P, 'T when 'T: struct> (pool: IPool<'P, 'T>) pointer = pool.GetReference pointer
Solution provided by
https://github.com/Microsoft/visualfsharp/issues/5366#issuecomment-407521220
Though it does not explain why the original code does not compile.
I don't think it's standard practice to return a byref type. This type is really meant for method parameters, mostly for C# interop with out or ref parameters. Take a look at this StackOverflow question for a good explanation.
What you can do is change the method on your interface to take a tuple of ITypedPointer<'P,'T> and byref<'T> (usage of byref is not allowed with curried parameters) and return unit instead. Then you can call GetReference like any standard .NET method with an out parameter in C#. That would look something like this:
type ITypedPointer<'P, 'T> = interface end
type IPool<'P, 'T when 'T: struct> =
abstract member GetReference: ITypedPointer<'P, 'T> * byref<'T> -> unit
let Ref<'TPool, 'P, 'T when 'TPool :> IPool<'P, 'T>> (pool: 'TPool) pointer =
let mutable value = Unchecked.defaultof<'T>
pool.GetReference(pointer, &value)
value

Calling ES 3rd party script method from F# Fable

I'm trying to get Fable to compile the following code correctly but am unable to do so:
module AppView
#r "../../../node_modules/fable-core/Fable.Core.dll"
open Fable.Core
open Fable.Import.Browser
open Fable.Core.JsInterop
[<Import("default", from="../../../js/3rd/riot.js")>]
module riot_js =
let mount:((string*obj)->array<obj>) = jsNative
type App
(
tagName:string
,state
,store
) =
member public x.AppTag =
(riot_js?mount ("app", state))
// does not compile: The value or constructor 'riot_js' is not defined.
// (riot_js.mount ("app", state))
// compiles wrongly to: riot_js.mount(["app", this.state]);
Trying riot_js?mount would magically cause riot_js to not exist any more and trying riot_js.mount compiles into riot_js.mount(["app", this.state]);.
Mount does not take one argument but 2 but it either won't transpile or transpile wrong.
For now I have one of the strangest looking solutions:
[<Emit("riot_js")>]
let riot_js (x: int): obj = jsNative
...
((riot_js 1)?mount ("app", state))
This returns an array but again Fable does not let me take the first element in a "normal" way:
((riot_js 1)?mount ("app", state))?[0]
Gives me red on [ with error Unexpected symbol '[' in expression. Expected identifier, '(' or other token.
And
((riot_js 1)?mount ("app", state)).[0]
Gives red on everything with error The field, constructor or member 'Item' is not defined.
The following "works"
((riot_js 1)?mount ("app", state))?``0``
And is compiled to:
riot_js.mount("app", this.state)["0"];
Not the best result someone can get. I'll let this question sit for a while and set a bounty on it for a week or so before opening 2 issues with Fable.
The following seems to compile to the right ES and does not need the ? so it'll be strongly typed.
open Fable.Core.JsInterop
type Riotjs =
{
mount:(System.Func<string,obj,string []>)
}
let riot = (importAll<obj> "../js/3rd/riot.js") :?> Riotjs
let app = riot.mount.Invoke("app",(createObj []))
I set initial state to type obj but can use a strong typed application state as well.
ES generated is:
export var app = riot.mount("app", {});

Why does the F# compiler give an error for one case but not the other?

I'm working on a platform invoke call from F#, and I am getting a compiler error I really can't make that much sense out of. First, let me show the C signature of what I am doing:
int Foo(
ULONG_PTR *phHandle,
DWORD flags
);
In F#, I think the correct way to invoke this natively is as so:
[<DllImport("somedll.dll")>]
static extern int APlatformInvokeCall
(
[<Out>]nativeint& phHandle,
uint32 flags
)
If I try to call this in a class, I get a compilation error when calling it like so:
type Class1() =
[<DllImport("somedll.dll")>]
static extern int APlatformInvokeCall
(
nativeint& phHandle,
uint32 flags
)
member this.Foo() =
let mutable thing = nativeint 0
APlatformInvokeCall(&thing, 0u) |> ignore
thing
The error is:
A type instantiation involves a byref type. This is not permitted by the rules of Common IL.
Weirdly, when I do this all in a module, the compilation errors go away:
module Module1 =
[<DllImport("somedll.dll")>]
extern int APlatformInvokeCall
(
nativeint& phHandle,
uint32 flags
)
let Foo() =
let mutable thing = nativeint 0
APlatformInvokeCall(&thing, 0u) |> ignore
thing
Why does this compile as a module, but not as a class?
I don't think it's valid to define an extern method within a class in F#.
If you pull up the F# 3.0 language specification and search for DllImport, near the bottom is a table listing some special attributes and how they can be used. The text for [<DllImport>] says:
When applied to a function definition in a module, causes the F# compiler to ignore the implementation of the definition, and instead compile it as a CLI P/Invoke stub declaration.
That seems to indicate that it's only valid to declare extern methods (that use [<DllImport>]) on functions defined in a module; it doesn't say anything about class members though.
I think you're running into a compiler bug. Please submit this code to fsbugs#microsoft.com so they can fix the error message emitted by the compiler -- it should really be giving you an error about defining an extern method in a class since that's not allowed by the language spec.
Whether this is a bug not withstanding, maybe this is what's going on: If APlatformInvokeCall were considered a static member function, that member have a single argument of tuple type. Tuples are compiled into objects of generic type (see here, at the bottom, or 5.1.3 in the spec). In this case that tuple is
System.Tuple<nativeint&, uint32>
But ECMA 335 II.9.4 says you can't instantiate generic types at byref types. This explains the error reported.
This explanation fits the fact mentioned above that Class1 works (well, compiles) if you modify the extern declaration and call to take instead a single argument. It also fits the fact that the module version works, since in that version there is no considering APlatFormInvokeCall a member function.
The simple solution is to check the spec, here is the class definition grammar:
type type-name pat_opt as-defn)opt =
class
class-inherits-decl_opt
class-function-or-value-defns_opt
type-defn-elements
end
then we have
class-function-or-value-defn :
attributes_opt staticopt let rec_opt function-or-value-defns
attributes_opt staticopt do expr
which doesn't allow extern.
and
type-defn-element :
member-defn
interface-impl
interface-signature
which isn't what you want either.
As a result, we can see that using extern as you are trying to use it can't be done inside a class.

How to get a reference to a function that doesn't take parameters in F#?

I sometimes have the need to get the function itself, not the value, of a zero-parameter function in F#, for instance for memoization. I.e., I have this:
let memoize (f: 'a -> 'b) =
let dict = new Dictionary<'a, 'b>()
let memoizedFunc (input: 'a) =
match dict.TryGetValue(input) with
| true, x -> x
| false, _ ->
let answer = f input
dict.Add(input, answer)
answer
memoizedFunc
and this works perfectly, but now I have the following function:
let private getDataSlowOperation =
// implementation
and when I try to memoize that, it gives a type mismatch (essentially the mismatch between the return type of getDataSlowOperation and the 'a type). I can solve this by changing the function as follows:
let private getDataSlowOperation bogus =
// implementation
Now this works, but it seems odd to have to change the function signature to get memoization to work:
let memoGetDataSlowOperation = memoize getDataSlowOperation
I've experimented with inline fun declarations, but this creates, of course, a new anonymous function and the memoization doesn't work with that. Any ideas how to resolve this? Any keyword / operator I've forgotten about?
What you defined is not a function, it's just a value.
In order to define it as a function you can write this:
let private getDataSlowOperation() =
// implementation
UPDATE
To summarize the discussion:
This is the right way to write it as a function, however the code would still not work but that's a different problem.
The code would fail at runtime because () is compiled to null and by using a Dictionary you can't use null for the Key. You can use a Map instead.
John pointed out that memoization for functions without parameters makes no sense, I agree.
Still, if you use a Dictionary for functions with parameters you will run into the same problem with values that are compiled to null, ie: None

Why can't a function with byref be converted directly to delegate?

Under normal circumstances, F# functions can be converted to delegates by calling new DelegateType and passing in the function as an argument. But when the delegate contains byref parameter, this is not possible directly. For example the code:
type ActionByRef<'a> = delegate of 'a byref -> unit
let f (x:double byref) =
x <- 6.0
let x = ref 42.0
let d = new ActionByRef<_>(f)
won't compile, giving the following error:
This function value is being used to construct a delegate type whose signature includes a byref argument. You must use an explicit lambda expression taking 1 arguments.
Following the error, modifying the code to use
let d = new ActionByRef<_>(fun x -> f(&x))
works. But my question is: why is this necessary? Why won't F# allow the conversion from named function to this delegate, but conversion from lambda is fine?
I came upon this behavior when researching another question. I realize byref is meant only for compatibility with other .Net languages.
I think the problem is that byref<'T> is not an actual type in F# - it looks like a type (to make the language simpler), but it gets compiled to a parameter marked with the out flag. This means that byref<'T> can be only used in a place where the compiler can actually use the out flag.
The problem with function values is that you can construct function e.g. by partial application:
let foo (n:int) (b:byref<int>) =
b <- n
When you pass foo as an argument to a delegate constructor, it is a specific case of partial application (with no arguments), but partial application actually needs to construct a new method and then give that to the delegate:
type IntRefAction = delegate of byref<int> -> unit
let ac = IntRefAction(foo 5)
The compiler could be clever and generate new method with byref parameter (or out flag) and then pass that by reference to the actual function, but in general, there will be other compiler-generated method when you don't use the fun ... -> ... syntax. Handling this would add complexity and I think that's a relatively rare case, so the F# compiler doesn't do that and asks you to be more explicit...

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