[kepler-dev] Re: question on typing processes and higher-order functions a la map

Stephen Andrew Neuendorffer neuendor at eecs.berkeley.edu
Tue May 25 14:15:54 PDT 2004


At 01:08 PM 5/25/2004, Bertram Ludaescher wrote:

>Hi:
>
>Liying Sui and I recently came across the following typing problem:
>
>Consider an actor, say "factors" which computes for a given int I, all
>the prime factors of I. For example factors(20) = [2,2,5]
>
>Thus, the signature of factors is:
>
>         factors :: int --> [int]
>
>Now assume factors is to be applied on a stream <x1, x2, x3, ...> of
>integers, denoted <int>
>
>It seems tempting to view the *process* Factors that is so created as
>applying the higher-order map function to factors, i.e.,
>         Factors = map(factors)
>
>There are some interesting typing issues. Let's say map has the
>following type on streams:
>
>         map :: (a-->b) --> <a> --> <b>
>
>That is, map takes a function of type (a-->b) and a stream of a's
>(denoted <a>) and returns a stream of b's.
>Therefore the type of the Factors process can be determined to be
>
>         Factors :: <int> --> < [int] >
>
>Example: Factors( <4, 6, 10, ... > ) = < [2,2], [2,3], [2,5], ... >
>
>So far so good -- no information is lost.
>
>It seems, however, that in practise sometimes  another process is
>created:
>         Factors'( <4, 6, 10, ... > ) = < 2,2,2,3,2,5, ... >
>
>Clearly this process Factors' does lose some information (the grouping
>of result tuples into list of prime factors). While for this specific
>example, Factors' is not desirable, such a "flattening" behavior seems
>to be used in practise:

I'm confused: Are you saying that this is what Ptolemy does, and you don't 
like
it, or that Ptolemy does not do this, and you would like it to?

Could you consider this to be another higher-order function that takes
expandArray :: <[int]> -> <int>?


>Let say we change our original function factors to produce not a list
>of ints, but a stream of them:
>
>         factors' :: int --> <int>
>
>This correspond to a token consumption/production pattern of " 1:* "
>(for each input token, we might get multiple output tokens).
>
>Is it correct that in Ptolemy II using factors' with an SDF director
>produces a process Factors' on streams that has the signature:
>
>         Factors' :: <int> --> <int>
>
>In order to make this behavior type-correct it seems we may have to
>say that <<int>> = <int>, because we get
>
>         map(factors') = Factors'
>
>and the former has the type
>
>         map(factors') ::  <int> --> < <int> >
>
>Note that the type of map(factors') is obtained by using the general
>type of map above:
>
>         map :: (a-->b) --> <a> --> <b>
>
>and the applying this to factors' :: int --> <int>
>(hence a = int and b = <int>)
>
>So if indeed Factors' is of the said type we must accept (whether we
>like it or not ;-) that <<int>> = <int> (or in general, nesting
>streams in this way yields a "flat" stream).
>
>Comments??
>Does Ptolemy II with an SDF director and an actor of type
>         myactor :: a --> <b>

I don't think this makes sence...  SDF actor functions don't have access to 
the whole stream...  they have access to a fixed length prefix of the stream.

>produce a process
>         MYACTOR :: <a> --> <b>
>which thus can be explained as a "special map" over streams with the
>type identity <<b>> = <b> ??

why not another HOF: expandStream :: <<b>> -> <b> ?
I think that the advantage of expandArray over expandStream is that arrays 
are generally finite, while
streams are not, and hence it is more likely that the computation I've 
specified actually processes the
data being created...  Note that there are two ways to implement 
expandStream (does it produce an infinite stream consisting of the first 
element of each input stream, or does it produce an infinite stream that 
begins with the first
infinite input stream, and then never gets to the other ones?)

>Thanks in advance!
>
>Bertram and Liying
>
>
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