Yhc/Javascript/Inner workings
In this section, internal structure of Javascript objects and runtime support algorithms is reviewed.
Structure of Javascript Objects
The table below summarizes types of Javascript objects used in the ycr2js generated Javascript code.
Member/ Constructor |
Prop Meth Constr |
H S C o n s |
H S E O L |
H S F u n |
H S D l y |
H S D a t a |
Description/Arguments | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
HSCons | C | * | Builds a list CONS cell | head: head element |
tail: remainder of the list | |||||
HSEOL | C | * | Final element of a list or an empty list | |||||||
HSFun | C | * | Creates a function thunk with no arguments applied to | name: function name to be used for debugging/exception tracing |
arity: arity of the function known by the compiler |
body: expression to apply to function's arguments and evaluate | ||||
HSDly | C | * | A special object to wrap around a saturated function call | thunk: saturated function call that is a HSFun object with number of arguments applied to (_a) equal to the function arity (_x); evaluation of this thunk will be delayed until it is applied to an argument which would have oversaturated the call in the absence of HSDly | ||||||
HSData | C | * | Builds a data object other than a CONS cell or an Empty List | con: constructor name (with non-alphanumeric characters replaced with underscored character codes) |
arrs: a Javascript Array containing contructor arguments | |||||
_r | P | * | * | * | * | * | Boolean: true when a thunk may be evaluated.
| |||
_c | M | * | * | * | * | * | Evaluate a thunk. If this method is said as "has no action", this means that it just returns this and does nothing else.
| |||
_a | P | * | * | Array:
| ||||||
_ap | M | * | * | Apply function call/delayed saturated call to argument(s)
|
targs: Array containing the arguments to be applied to | |||||
_b | P | * | Holds the expression to apply to function's arguments and evaluate: the third argument of the HSFun constructor is copied here | |||||||
_x | P | * | Holds the function arity: the second argument of the HSFun constructor is copied here | |||||||
_n | P | * | Holds the function name: the first argument of the HSFun constructor is copied here | |||||||
_d | P | * | Holds the saturated function call (HSFun object with _a.length == _x : the first argument of the HSDly constructor is copied here
| |||||||
_t | P | * | * | * | Constructor name for a Data or a CONS/Empty list cell to be used for pattern matching
| |||||
_f | P | * | * | * | Constructor arguments (may be empty)
| |||||
toString | M | * | Method of Object overridden by HSCons. Used for unmarshalling of Haskell lists (including Strings) into Javascript as Strings. The method evaluates all elements of the list (therefore it should be finite) and if the list contains characters, they are concatenated into a Javascript String, otherwise the _toArray method is called, and the toString method is called upon _toArray's result. | |||||||
_toArray | M | * | Method used for unmarshalling of Haskell lists (including Strings) into Javascript as Arrays. The method evaluates all elements of the list (therefore it should be finite) and concatenates them into a Javascript Array. Internal representation of Haskell type Char is its numeric value, so a Haskell String will be converted into a Javascript Array of Number 's.
|
Evaluation of Expressions
The Javascript runtime support library provides a function exprEval
which is used to evaluate all expressions starting with the toplevel expression (starting point).
In essence, this function looks like this:
function exprEval (e) {
for (var ex = e; ex != undefined && ex._r ; ex = ex._c())
;
return ex;
};
This is a loop that checks whether a given expression exists (not undefined
) and can be evaluated (_r == true)
. In this case, it calls the expression's _c method and analyzes its return. If the returned expression also may be evaluated, the function loops and evaluates it. This is repeated until an expression that no longer can be evaluated is returned (normal situation, e. g. a primitive value or a Data object), or an undefined
value is returned (this is abnormal situation).
While evaluating an expression, exprEval
may be recursively called to evaluate nested expressions.
Special Notes
Oversaturation
Oversaturation happens when a function thunk (HSFun object) is applied to more arguments than function arity (_x).
For example, this piece of Haskell code:
let g = fst tup x = g (5::Int) (6::Int)
converts into the following Javascript (indentation manual):
var Bug_46Bug_46Prelude_46217_46g=
new HSFun("Bug.Bug.Prelude.217.g", 0, function(){
var v285=new HSFun("v285", 0, function(){
return Prelude_46Prelude_46Num_46Prelude_46Integer;}
);
return (Prelude_46fst)._ap([(Bug_46tup)._ap([v285])]);
});
var Bug_46Bug_46Prelude_46218_46x=
new HSFun("Bug.Bug.Prelude.218.x", 0, function(){
return (Bug_46Bug_46Prelude_46217_46g)._ap([5, 6]);
});
As it can be clearly seen, g
is defined with arity = 0 which is reasonable: its definition does not have any formal arguments. But when computing x
, g
is called with two arguments: 5 and 6.
To preserve laziness, the thunk of g
should not be evaluated earlier than it is actually needed, i. e. when the value of x
is needed. Calling the _ap method of g
would have resulted in oversaturation and inevitable error in computations.
To work this around, logics of HSFun._ap method was changed, and special object type HSDly was introduced. HSFun._ap may accept any number of arguments in an array. Length of the array of arguments is compared with number of arguments needed to saturate the call. If the call becomes under- or completely saturated after the arguments have been applied to, no special action is taken: undersaturated call remains the same, saturated is wrapped in HSDly. If however oversaturation is about to happen, portion of arguments necessary to saturate the call is absorbed into the accumulated arguments array, and the rest of arguments are carried over to the HSDly._ap method.
Behavior of HSDly objects is as follows: the _ap method accepts as many arguments as provided, and accumulates them inside. The _c method evaluates the delayed thunk first, and then calls its _ap method with all the arguments accumulated up to the moment. In this case it is expected that the delayed thunk will evaluate into another function call (as can be seen in the example above). These actions may lead to either a value computed as result of application, or another function call, under-or completely or over-saturated. In the two latter cases, the result will be wrapped into another HSDly object with arguments remaining carried over.