module React:sig
..end
React is a module for functional reactive programming (frp). It provides support to program with time varying values : declarative events and signals. React doesn't define any primitive event or signal, this lets the client choose the concrete timeline.
Consult the semantics, the basics and examples. Open the module to use it, this defines only two types and modules in your scope.
Release 1.2.0 - Daniel Bünzli <daniel.buenzl i@erratique.ch>
type 'a
event
'a
.type 'a
signal
'a
.type
step
module E:sig
..end
module S:sig
..end
module Step:sig
..end
The following notations are used to give precise meaning to the combinators. It is important to note that in these semantic descriptions the origin of time t = 0 is always fixed at the time at which the combinator creates the event or the signal and the semantics of the dependents is evaluated relative to this timeline.
We use dt to denote an infinitesimal amount of time.
An event is a value with discrete occurrences over time.
The semantic function [] : 'a event -> time -> 'a option
gives
meaning to an event e
by mapping it to a function of time
[e
] returning Some v
whenever the event occurs with value
v
and None
otherwise. We write [e
]t the evaluation of
this semantic function at time t.
As a shortcut notation we also define []<t : 'a event -> 'a option
(resp. []<=t) to denote the last occurrence, if any, of an
event before (resp. before or at) t
. More precisely :
e
]<t =
[e
]t' with t' the greatest t' < t
(resp. <=
) such that
[e
]t' <> None
.e
]<t = None
if there is no such t'.
A signal is a value that varies continuously over time. In contrast to events which occur at specific point in time, a signal has a value at every point in time.
The semantic function [] : 'a signal -> time -> 'a
gives
meaning to a signal s
by mapping it to a function of time
[s
] that returns its value at a given time. We write [s
]t
the evaluation of this semantic function at time t.
Most signal combinators have an optional eq
parameter that
defaults to structural equality. eq
specifies the equality
function used to detect changes in the value of the resulting
signal. This function is needed for the efficient update of
signals and to deal correctly with signals that perform
side effects.
Given an equality function on a type the combinators can be automatically specialized via a functor.
Ultimately signal updates depend on primitives updates. Thus a signal can only approximate a real continuous signal. The accuracy of the approximation depends on the variation rate of the real signal and the primitive's update frequency.
React doesn't define primitive events and signals, they must be created and updated by the client.
Primitive events are created with React.E.create
. This function
returns a new event and an update function that generates an
occurrence for the event at the time it is called. The following
code creates a primitive integer event x
and generates three
occurrences with value 1
, 2
, 3
. Those occurrences are printed
on stdout by the effectful event pr_x
.
open React;;
let x, send_x = E.create ()
let pr_x = E.map print_int x
let () = List.iter send_x [1; 2; 3]
Primitive signals are created with React.S.create
. This function
returns a new signal and an update function that sets the signal's value
at the time it is called. The following code creates an
integer signal x
initially set to 1
and updates it three time with
values 2
, 2
, 3
. The signal's values are printed on stdout by the
effectful signal pr_x
. Note that only updates that change
the signal's value are printed, hence the program prints 123
, not 1223
.
See the discussion on
side effects for more details.
open React;;
let x, set_x = S.create 1
let pr_x = S.map print_int x
let () = List.iter set_x [2; 2; 3]
The clock example shows how a realtime time
flow can be defined.
The React.E.create
and React.S.create
functions return update functions
used to generate primitive event occurences and set the value of
primitive signals. Upon invocation as in the preceding section
these functions immediatly create and invoke an update step.
The update step automatically updates events and signals that
transitively depend on the updated primitive. The dependents of a
signal are updated iff the signal's value changed according to its
equality function.
The update functions have an optional step
argument. If they are
given a concrete step
value created with React.Step.create
, then it
updates the event or signal but doesn't update its dependencies. It
will only do so whenever step
is executed with
React.Step.execute
. This allows to make primitive event occurences and
signal changes simultaneous. See next section for an example.
Update steps are made under a synchrony hypothesis : the update step takes no time, it is instantenous. Two event occurrences are simultaneous if they occur in the same update step.
In the code below w
, x
and y
will always have simultaneous
occurrences. They may have simulatenous occurences with z
if send_w
and send_z
are used with the same update step.
let w, send_w = E.create ()
let x = E.map succ w
let y = E.map succ x
let z, send_z = E.create ()
let () =
let () = send_w 3 (* w x y occur simultaneously, z doesn't occur *) in
let step = Step.create () in
send_w ~step 3;
send_z ~step 4;
Step.execute step (* w x z y occur simultaneously *)
Primitives are the only mean to drive the reactive
system and they are entirely under the control of the client. When
the client invokes a primitive's update function without the
step
argument or when it invokes React.Step.execute
on a step
value, React performs an update step.
To ensure correctness in the presence of threads, update steps
must be executed in a critical section. Let uset(p
) be the set
of events and signals that need to be updated whenever the
primitive p
is updated. Updating two primitives p
and p'
concurrently is only allowed if uset(p
) and uset(p'
) are
disjoint. Otherwise the updates must be properly serialized.
Below, concurrent, updates to x
and y
must be serialized (or
performed on the same step if it makes sense semantically), but z
can be updated concurently to both x
and y
.
open React;;
let x, set_x = S.create 0
let y, send_y = E.create ()
let z, set_z = S.create 0
let max_xy = S.l2 (fun x y -> if x > y then x else y) x (S.hold 0 y)
let succ_z = S.map succ z
Effectful events and signals perform their side effect exactly once in each update step in which there is an update of at least one of the event or signal it depends on.
Remember that a signal updates in a step iff its equality function determined that the signal value changed. Signal initialization is unconditionally considered as an update.
It is important to keep references on effectful events and
signals. Otherwise they may be reclaimed by the garbage collector.
The following program prints only a 1
.
let x, set_x = S.create 1
let () = ignore (S.map print_int x)
let () = Gc.full_major (); List.iter set_x [2; 2; 3]
Lifting transforms a regular function to make it act on signals.
The combinators
React.S.const
and React.S.app
allow to lift functions of arbitrary arity n,
but this involves the inefficient creation of n-1 intermediary
closure signals. The fixed arity lifting
functions are more efficient. For example :
let f x y = x mod y
let fl x y = S.app (S.app ~eq:(==) (S.const f) x) y (* inefficient *)
let fl' x y = S.l2 f x y (* efficient *)
Besides, some of Pervasives
's functions and operators are
already lifted and availables in submodules of React.S
. They can be
be opened in specific scopes. For example if you are dealing with
float signals you can open React.S.Float
.
open React
open React.S.Float
let f t = sqrt t *. sin t (* f is defined on float signals *)
...
open Pervasives (* back to pervasives floats *)
If you are using OCaml 3.12 or later you can also use the let open
construct
let open React.S.Float in
let f t = sqrt t *. sin t in (* f is defined on float signals *)
...
Mutual and self reference among time varying values occurs naturally in programs. However a mutually recursive definition of two signals in which both need the value of the other at time t to define their value at time t has no least fixed point. To break this tight loop one signal must depend on the value the other had at time t-dt where dt is an infinitesimal delay.
The fixed point combinators React.E.fix
and React.S.fix
allow to refer to
the value an event or signal had an infinitesimal amount of time
before. These fixed point combinators act on a function f
that takes
as argument the infinitesimally delayed event or signal that f
itself returns.
In the example below history s
returns a signal whose value
is the history of s
as a list.
let history ?(eq = ( = )) s =
let push v = function
| [] -> [ v ]
| v' :: _ as l when eq v v' -> l
| l -> v :: l
in
let define h =
let h' = S.l2 push s h in
h', h'
in
S.fix [] define
When a program has infinitesimally delayed values a
primitive may trigger more than one update
step. For example if a signal s
is infinitesimally delayed, then
its update in a step c
will trigger a new step c'
at the end
of the step in which the delayed signal of s
will have the value
s
had in c
. This means that the recursion occuring between a
signal (or event) and its infinitesimally delayed counterpart must
be well-founded otherwise this may trigger an infinite number
of update steps, like in the following examples.
let start, send_start = E.create ()
let diverge =
let define e =
let e' = E.select [e; start] in
e', e'
in
E.fix define
let () = send_start () (* diverges *)
let diverge = (* diverges *)
let define s =
let s' = S.Int.succ s in
s', s'
in
S.fix 0 define
For technical reasons, delayed events and signals (those given to
fixing functions) are not allowed to directly depend on each
other. Fixed point combinators will raise Invalid_argument
if
such dependencies are created. This limitation can be
circumvented by mapping these values with the identity.
Strong stops should only be used on platforms where weak arrays have
a strong semantics (i.e. JavaScript). You can safely ignore that
section and the strong
argument of React.E.stop
and React.S.stop
if that's not the case.
Whenever React.E.stop
and React.S.stop
is called with ~strong:true
on a
reactive value v
, it is first stopped and then it walks over the
list prods
of events and signals that it depends on and
unregisters itself from these ones as a dependent (something that is
normally automatically done when v
is garbage collected since
dependents are stored in a weak array). Then for each element of
prod
that has no dependents anymore and is not a primitive it
stops them aswell and recursively.
A stop call with ~strong:true
is more involved. But it allows to
prevent memory leaks when used judiciously on the leaves of the
reactive system that are no longer used.
Warning. It should be noted that if direct references are kept
on an intermediate event or signal of the reactive system it may
suddenly stop updating if all its dependents were strongly stopped. In
the example below, e1
will never occur:
let e, e_send = E.create ()
let e1 = E.map (fun x -> x + 1) e (* never occurs *)
let () =
let e2 = E.map (fun x -> x + 1) e1 in
E.stop ~strong:true e2
This can be side stepped by making an artificial dependency to keep
the reference:
let e, e_send = E.create ()
let e1 = E.map (fun x -> x + 1) e (* may still occur *)
let e1_ref = E.map (fun x -> x) e1
let () =
let e2 = E.map (fun x -> x + 1) e1 in
E.stop ~strong:true e2
The following program defines a primitive event seconds
holding
the UNIX time and occuring on every second. An effectful event
converts these occurences to local time and prints them on stdout
along with an
ANSI
escape sequence to control the cursor position.
let pr_time t =
let tm = Unix.localtime t in
Printf.printf "\x1B[8D%02d:%02d:%02d%!"
tm.Unix.tm_hour tm.Unix.tm_min tm.Unix.tm_sec
open React;;
let seconds, run =
let e, send = E.create () in
let run () =
while true do send (Unix.gettimeofday ()); Unix.sleep 1 done
in
e, run
let printer = E.map pr_time seconds
let () = run ()