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Thu Apr 4 19:48:41 EDT 2013
hold and setup
One of the features I'm looking for is `hold', which computes an
expression once at t=0, then holds that value.
The other one is `setup' which takes the first expression at t=0 and
the second one otherwise.
(define (test-subsample (s) (x))
(let*
((s (setup (+ s 1) s))
(y (hold x))))
(+ s x y)))
The thing is that these mechanisms are distinct, but they are unified
in the "setup/update" 2-phase approach. This seems to be the cause of
a lot of confusion.
An advantage of implementing them separately is that we can unroll the
loop for t=0 and t>0 and just directly implement the 2 behaviors
without resorting to assignments, just variable shadowing.
setup: t=0 / t>0 each take one of the branches. practically, every prim can be tagged.
hold: first unroll defines the variable, second unroll doesn't define the variable.
Now, by defining (hold x) as (setup x #f) this might be implemented
using a single mechanism. So let's start with setup.
Capturing the bindings seems to be simple. However, it might be
better to implement this as a type-annotation, since it's a bit
special anyway.
Think about it a bit..
Looks like there is a solution. This can be implemented using an
explicit "p_phase" primitive which performs an actual (t==0)
comparison. However, using proper annotation generated during AI, the
nodes can be tagged to be left out of one of the 2 phases: setup (t=0)
and loop (t>0).
Trouble is that "hold" doesn't work this way: it needs explicit support.
The rest is for later.
It's a big change, but looks straightforward.
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