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Re: Junctive puzzles.
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From:
Miroslav Silovic
Date:
February 10, 2005 04:53
Subject:
Re: Junctive puzzles.
Message ID:
420B4592.70301@puremagic.com
matthew@alledora.co.uk wrote:
>> What if junctions collapsed into junctions of the valid options under
>> some circumstances, so
>>
>> my $x = any(1,2,3,4,5,6,7);
>> if(is_prime($x) # $x = any(2,3,5,7)
>> and is_even($x) # $x = any(2)
>> and $x > 2) # $x = any()
>
>
> This is Just Wrong, IMO. How confusing is it going to be to find that
> calling is_prime($x) modifies the value of $x despite it being a very
> simple test operation which appears to have no side effects?
>
> As far as I can see it, in the example, it's perfectly logical for
> is_prime($x), is_even($x) and $x > 2 to all be true, because an any()
> junction was used. If an all() junction was used it would be quite a
> different matter of course, but I would see is_prime() called on an
> any() junction as returning true the moment it finds a value inside
> that junction which is prime. It doesn't need to change $x at all.
>
> In a way, you're sort of asking 'has $x got something that has the
> characteristics of a prime number?' and of course, $x has - several of
> them, in fact (but the count is not important).
>
Well, yes, unexpected side-effects are not so great, however, in this
case they're sequestered behind junctions. In fact, the other post
suggested using implicit backtracking for this (something that can have
a real problem with *expected* side-effects). If you just think of
junctions as 'Just Works', side effects are implementation detail.
To address your idea, problem is, you generally don't know whether
you've been passed a junction (short of very specific type query), and
writing code without being able to rely on the fact that (is_prime($x)
&& !!is_prime($x)) == false is Just Plain Evil. For example, something
as simple as
if (is_prime($x)) { ... }
else { ... }
may be buggy if $x is a junction. To make it work correctly, you will
want to write
if (is_prime($x)) { ... }
if (!is_prime($x)) { ... }
Evil, no? :)
Miro
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