Bluish Coder

While using the ATS wrapper for pthreads I noticed the use of a couple things related to closures that I hadn't seen before and therefore didn't get mentioned in my post on ATS closures. The signature for the function to spawn a closure in a thread is:

fun pthread_create_detached_cloptr
  (f: () -<lin,cloptr1> void): void
// end of [pthread_create_detached_cloptr]

Notice the use of 'lin' alongside 'cloptr1'. When calling this function you can't use 'lam' to create the closure due to the following compile error:

(* Using *)
val () = pthread_create_detached_cloptr(lam () => print_string("hello thread 1\n"));

(* Gives *)
test.dats: ...: error(3) nonlinear function is given a linear type .

The correct thing to do is to use 'llam':

val () = pthread_create_detached_cloptr(llam () => print_string("hello thread 1\n"));

The 'Tips for using ATS' paper available from the ATSfloat site mentions that 'llam' is equivalent to the following 'lam' usage:

val () = pthread_create_detached_cloptr(lam () =<lin,cloptr1> print_string("hello thread 1\n"));

There wasn't much usage of lin,cloptr to look at, and little mention of it anywhere, so I asked on the mailing list about it. Hongwei's reply explains the difference between using 'lin' and not using 'lin':

In ATS, it is allowed to create a closure containing some resources in its environment. In the above example, 'lin' is used to indicate that [f] is a closure whose enviroment may contain resources.

In the reply Hongwei shows that a version of pthread_create_detached_cloptr without the 'lin' is more restrictive than with it as that would not allow containing resources in the environment of the closure.

A (somewhat contrived) example of usage below defines a function 'test' that takes as an argument a closure tagged as lin,cloptr1. It calls the closure and then frees it. In the 'main' function I use the cURL library to call 'curl_global_init'. This returns a 'pf_gerr' resource that is used to track if the correct cURL cleanup routine is called. The following example compiles and runs fine:

staload "contrib/cURL/SATS/curl.sats"

fun test(f: () -<lin,cloptr1> void) = (f(); cloptr_free(f))

implement main() = let
  val (pf_gerr | gerr) = curl_global_init (CURL_GLOBAL_ALL)
  val () = assert_errmsg (gerr = CURLE_OK, #LOCATION)

  val () = test(llam () => curl_global_cleanup (pf_gerr | (*none*)))
in
  ()
end;

Compile with something like:

atscc -o example example.dats -lcurl

Notice that in the closure passed to 'test' the 'pf_gerr' resource is used. The means that resource is captured by the closure. A version without using 'lin' and 'llam' is:

staload "contrib/cURL/SATS/curl.sats"

fun test(f: () -<cloptr1> void) = (f(); cloptr_free(f))

implement main() = let
  val (pf_gerr | gerr) = curl_global_init (CURL_GLOBAL_ALL)
  val () = assert_errmsg (gerr = CURLE_OK, #LOCATION)

  val () = test(lam () => curl_global_cleanup (pf_gerr | (*none*)))
in
  ()
end;

This produces the compile error showing that without the 'lin' tag a closure cannot capture resources:

example.dats: ...: the linear dynamic variable [pf_gerr] is expected to be local but it is not.

A version that works without using 'lin':

staload "contrib/cURL/SATS/curl.sats"

fun test {v:view}
  (pf: v | f: (v | (*none*)) -<cloptr1> void) = (f(pf | (*none*)); cloptr_free(f))

implement main() = let
  val (pf_gerr | gerr) = curl_global_init (CURL_GLOBAL_ALL)
  val () = assert_errmsg (gerr = CURLE_OK, #LOCATION)

  val () = test(pf_gerr | lam (pf | (*none*)) => curl_global_cleanup (pf | (*none*)))
in
  ()
end; 

Here we have to explicitly pass the resource around in a number of places. The use of 'lin' and 'llam' makes the code shorter and easier to understand. In a later reply Hongwei goes on to say:

While linear closures containing resources may not be common, linear proof functions are common and very useful for manipulating and tracking resources.