[kepler-dev] Threaded actors in the DE Domain

[ian.brown@hsbcib.com]

The code that I now have, and which works is as follows:

if (processInput(sb.toString(), instrument)){
      // fireAtCurrentTime has the result that all events are called at
model
      // time zero with an incrementing microstep. Whilst this will work
for most
      // scenarios, it has the effect that the timed plotter just displays
a vertical
      // line. For that reason, we need to figure out the correct time to
fire the event at.
      //getDirector().fireAtCurrentTime(CurrencyPairListener.this);
      //
      ptolemy.kernel.util.ChangeRequest request = new
ptolemy.kernel.util.ChangeRequest(CurrencyPairListener.this, ""){
            protected void _execute(){
            DEDirector director = (DEDirector)(getDirector());
            long start_time = director.getRealStartTimeMillis();
            long time_now = java.lang.System.currentTimeMillis();
            double model_time = (time_now - start_time) / 1000.0;
            try {
                  director.fireAt(CurrencyPairListener.this, new
ptolemy.actor.util.Time(director, model_time));
            } catch (IllegalActionException ex) {
                  throw new RuntimeException("fireAtCurrentTime() "+ "threw
an exception", ex);
            }
            }
      };
      requestChange(request);
      executeChangeRequests();
}

I had to put in the call to executeChangeRequests() because otherwise the
change requests are deferred until the execution is stopped.
Looking at this though, and digging into the code a bit, it would seem that
I could get the same result by surrounding the sensitive block with a
synchronized (_changeLock){}. That would appear to do the same thing
without the overhead of building the changeRequests lists and it would also
ensure that other change requests that I may want blocked do not occur.

Ian




                                                                           
             "Edward A. Lee"                                               
             <eal at eecs.berkele                                             
             y.edu>                                                     To 
                                       ian.brown at hsbcib.com                
             13/09/2007 00:55                                           cc 
             Mail Size: 26054          kepler-dev at ecoinformatics.org       
                                                                   Subject 
                                       Re: [kepler-dev] Threaded actors in 
                                       the DE Domain                       
                                                                    Entity 
                                       Investment Banking Europe - IBEU    
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           





I see... Yes, as you discovered, this code won't work.
There are other problems lurking besides the exception you saw...

I would suggest that your thread should call fireAt() inside the
body of a change request.  Something like:

   ChangeRequest request = new ChangeRequest(suitable args) {
      protected void _execute() {
         get all the time information you need
         fireAt(...);
      }
   }
   requestChange(request);

The _execute() method will be evaluated by the DEDirector at a
point where current time is stable, it's not in the middle of doing
causality analysis (the cause for the error you saw), and no
actor is in the middle of firing.

The reason the error went away when you changed the FSM actor
to not allow modifications is simply that you removed a very
costly computation that the DEDirector was doing on each FSM
transition (you reported this problem before, and it's on my
"to do" list). However, all you did was reduce the size of
the target for concurrency errors. You didn't eliminate the
concurrency errors...

Edward


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