global record

global record

[Andreas Biegert]

Hi,

I am developing a bioinformatics sequence analysis application which
contains about 20 modules. One of those modules, the 'Par' module,
encapsulates a record of about 30 configuration parameters needed
throughout the whole application. The parameter record is mostly
static but some values can be overwritten by command-line options. Is
there a way to make the (possibly modified) parameters record globally
accessable throughout all modules? This would be much more convenient
than having to pass the parameters record to virtually all functions
in my application. THX for helping.

Andreas

Re: [Caml-list] global record

[Pietro Abate]

On Wed, Jul 19, 2006 at 01:11:22PM +0200, Andreas Biegert wrote:
> static but some values can be overwritten by command-line options. Is
> there a way to make the (possibly modified) parameters record globally
> accessable throughout all modules? This would be much more convenient
> than having to pass the parameters record to virtually all functions
> in my application. THX for helping.

For my application I've a module where each runtime option is a ref and
then I use the Arg module to set the proper value. Don't know if there
are better way of doing this...

:)
p

-- 
++ Blog: http://blog.rsise.anu.edu.au/?q=pietro
++ 
++ "All great truths begin as blasphemies." -George Bernard Shaw
++ Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
   See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: [Caml-list] global record

[David MENTRE]

Oops, forgot the caml-list.

d.

2006/7/19, David MENTRE <david.mentre@gmail.com>:
> Hello,
>
> 2006/7/19, Andreas Biegert <andreas.biegert@googlemail.com>:
> >  Is
> > there a way to make the (possibly modified) parameters record globally
> > accessable throughout all modules?
>
> Define a global variable in the Par module, use it in the other modules.
>
> ==par.ml==
> type param = { mutable a: int; }
>
> let params = { a = 3; }
> ==
>
> ==foo.ml==
> let bar = Par.params.a
>
> let _ = Par.params.a <- bar + 1
> ==
>
> > This would be much more convenient
> > than having to pass the parameters record to virtually all functions
> > in my application.
>
> <personal taste>I find this purely functional approach much cleaner
> because you know where your global variables are read or modified
> directly by looking at function parameters.</personal taste>
>
> Best wishes,
> d.
>

Re: [Caml-list] global record

[Richard Jones]

On Wed, Jul 19, 2006 at 01:11:22PM +0200, Andreas Biegert wrote:
> I am developing a bioinformatics sequence analysis application which
> contains about 20 modules. One of those modules, the 'Par' module,
> encapsulates a record of about 30 configuration parameters needed
> throughout the whole application. The parameter record is mostly
> static but some values can be overwritten by command-line options. Is
> there a way to make the (possibly modified) parameters record globally
> accessable throughout all modules? This would be much more convenient
> than having to pass the parameters record to virtually all functions
> in my application. THX for helping.

This is a bit ugly, but we use it in our Adwords API toolkit:

-------------------------------------------------- stdargs.mli
val username : string
val password : string
val client : string option
val token : string
val update : bool
val verbose : bool
val args : string list

-------------------------------------------------- stdargs.ml
let username = ref ""
let password = ref ""
let client = ref ""
let token = ref ""
let update = ref false
let verbose = ref false
let args = ref []

(* followed by some code which tries to read default values
 * from $HOME/.adwordsapidata -- code omitted
 *)

(* parse the command line parameters *)
let argspec = [
  "--username", Arg.Set_string username, "Adwords account username.";
  "--password", Arg.Set_string password, "Adwords account password.";
  "--client", Arg.Set_string client, "Adwords account client (optional).";
  "--token", Arg.Set_string token, "Adwords account token.";
  "--update", Arg.Set update, "Perform updates.";
  "--verbose", Arg.Set verbose, "Be verbose.";
]

let anon_fn str = args := str :: !args
let usage =
  Sys.executable_name ^ " [--options]"

let () = Arg.parse argspec anon_fn usage

let username = !username
let password = !password
let client = if !client = "" then None else Some !client
let token = !token
let update = !update
let verbose = !verbose
let args = List.rev !args

---

Then the code just stuff like:

  open Stdargs

  if verbose then printf "this is verbose mode\n"

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, CTO Merjis Ltd.
Merjis - web marketing and technology - http://merjis.com
Team Notepad - intranets and extranets for business - http://team-notepad.com

Re: [Caml-list] global record

[Yoann Padioleau]

Richard Jones <rich@annexia.org> writes:

> On Wed, Jul 19, 2006 at 01:11:22PM +0200, Andreas Biegert wrote:
>> I am developing a bioinformatics sequence analysis application which
>> contains about 20 modules. One of those modules, the 'Par' module,
>> encapsulates a record of about 30 configuration parameters needed
>> throughout the whole application. The parameter record is mostly
>> static but some values can be overwritten by command-line options. Is
>> there a way to make the (possibly modified) parameters record globally
>> accessable throughout all modules? This would be much more convenient
>> than having to pass the parameters record to virtually all functions
>> in my application. THX for helping.
>
> This is a bit ugly, but we use it in our Adwords API toolkit:
>
> -------------------------------------------------- stdargs.mli
> val username : string

You certainly mean 
 val username: string ref

> val password : string
> val client : string option
> val token : string
> val update : bool
> val verbose : bool
> val args : string list
>
> -------------------------------------------------- stdargs.ml
> let username = ref ""
> let password = ref ""
> let client = ref ""
> let token = ref ""
> let update = ref false
> let verbose = ref false
> let args = ref []
>

[ ... ]
>
> Then the code just stuff like:
>
>   open Stdargs
>
>   if verbose then printf "this is verbose mode\n"

You certainly mean 

 if !verbose then printf "this is verbose mode\n"

>
> Rich.

-- 
pad

Re: [Caml-list] global record

[Richard Jones]

On Wed, Jul 19, 2006 at 04:39:32PM +0200, Yoann Padioleau wrote:
> Richard Jones <rich@annexia.org> writes:
> > val username : string
> 
> You certainly mean 
>  val username: string ref

No, I mean:

val username : string

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, CTO Merjis Ltd.
Merjis - web marketing and technology - http://merjis.com
Team Notepad - intranets and extranets for business - http://team-notepad.com

Re: [Caml-list] global record

[William D. Neumann]

On Wed, 19 Jul 2006, Yoann Padioleau wrote:

> You certainly mean
>
> if !verbose then printf "this is verbose mode\n"

No.  After he calls Arg parse, he does:
let username = !username
let password = !password
let client = if !client = "" then None else Some !client
let token = !token
let update = !update
let verbose = !verbose
let args = List.rev !args

and loses the refs.

William D. Neumann

---

"There's just so many extra children, we could just feed the
children to these tigers.  We don't need them, we're not doing 
anything with them.

Tigers are noble and sleek; children are loud and messy."

         -- Neko Case

Life is unfair.  Kill yourself or get over it.
 	-- Black Box Recorder

Re: [Caml-list] global record

[Jean-Christophe Filliatre]

Richard Jones writes:
 > On Wed, Jul 19, 2006 at 04:39:32PM +0200, Yoann Padioleau wrote:
 > > Richard Jones <rich@annexia.org> writes:
 > > > val username : string
 > > 
 > > You certainly mean 
 > >  val username: string ref
 > 
 > No, I mean:
 > 
 > val username : string

and I confirm :-) 

I  use  the  same  trick  of dereferencing  the  references  used  for
command-line  parsing as  soon as  it  is done  and I  find this  very
convenient.  This can be  realized in  the very  first module  on your
ocaml link command,  and thus in whole the remaining  of your code you
do not need to use the deref operator (!) anymore.

-- 
Jean-Christophe

Re: [Caml-list] global record

[Jeff Henrikson]

The full generalization of this is dynamic scoping, as you may know.  
There's a discussion of the implementation in emacs in the emacs 
manual.  Not thread safe but can be made so with an immutable binary 
tree, eg the Map module.  You could map either strings or polymorphic 
variants to your config value type, probably a regular variant.  I'm not 
sure how much of a performance savings polymoprhic variants would be 
over strings.

For a couple of other approaches see 
http://caml.inria.fr/pub/ml-archives/caml-list/2004/12/a0924032de03d517cb8cb8f2adde6c94.en.html


Jeff



Andreas Biegert wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am developing a bioinformatics sequence analysis application which
> contains about 20 modules. One of those modules, the 'Par' module,
> encapsulates a record of about 30 configuration parameters needed
> throughout the whole application. The parameter record is mostly
> static but some values can be overwritten by command-line options. Is
> there a way to make the (possibly modified) parameters record globally
> accessable throughout all modules? This would be much more convenient
> than having to pass the parameters record to virtually all functions
> in my application. THX for helping.
>
> Andreas
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Archives: http://caml.inria.fr
> Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners
> Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs

Re: [Caml-list] global record

[Eric Breck]

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> Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006 15:07:29 +0100
> From: Richard Jones <rich@annexia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Caml-list] global record
> To: Andreas Biegert <andreas.biegert@googlemail.com>
> Cc: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr

>This is a bit ugly, but we use it in our Adwords API toolkit:
>
>-------------------------------------------------- stdargs.mli
>val username : string
>val password : string
>val client : string option
>val token : string
>val update : bool
>val verbose : bool
>val args : string list
>
>-------------------------------------------------- stdargs.ml
>let username = ref ""
>let password = ref ""
>let client = ref ""
>let token = ref ""
>let update = ref false
>let verbose = ref false
>let args = ref []
>
>(* followed by some code which tries to read default values
> * from $HOME/.adwordsapidata -- code omitted
> *)
>
>(* parse the command line parameters *)
>let argspec = [
>  "--username", Arg.Set_string username, "Adwords account username.";
>  "--password", Arg.Set_string password, "Adwords account password.";
>  "--client", Arg.Set_string client, "Adwords account client (optional).";
>  "--token", Arg.Set_string token, "Adwords account token.";
>  "--update", Arg.Set update, "Perform updates.";
>  "--verbose", Arg.Set verbose, "Be verbose.";
>]
>
>let anon_fn str = args := str :: !args
>let usage =
>  Sys.executable_name ^ " [--options]"
>
>let () = Arg.parse argspec anon_fn usage
>
>let username = !username
>let password = !password
>let client = if !client = "" then None else Some !client
>let token = !token
>let update = !update
>let verbose = !verbose
>let args = List.rev !args
>
>---
>
>Then the code just stuff like:
>
>  open Stdargs
>
>  if verbose then printf "this is verbose mode\n"

<gauche_self_promotion>

I was also writing code that looked like that, and I got tired of the
duplication, and also the non-locality - each new option requires a
modification in several places.  So the pa_arg syntax extension I just
announced makes this a lot easier.  Except for the reading of values from the
dotfile, all the above code is generated from this declaration (not tested):

open Parseopt

type option myopts = {
username = "" : help = "Adwords account username"; string;
password = "" : help = "Adwords account password";  string;
client: help = "Adwords account client (optional)"; string;
token = "": help = "Adwords account token"; string;
update = false: help = "Perform updates"; action = set; bool;
verbose = false: help = "Be verbose"; action = set; bool;
}
let myopts = {myopts with keyspecs = [Long2]} in (** specify you want field
foo => --foo *)

let options, args = parse_argv myopts in

...

if options.verbose then print "this is verbose mode!\n"

...

You also get a detailed usage and help message and a function to convert the
returned options to a string, plus further customizability.

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~ebreck/pa_arg

-E r i c

</gauche_self_promotion>

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