2011-06-28

1st-class functions and various environs

adda/oop/1st-class functions:
5.16:
. a function's owner is the environs in which
the function's body is defined; [6.1:
a top-level subprogram is owned by the library,
and thereby has access to the standard lib' .]
. most functions are owned by types:
the type's body provides the environs;
but 1st-class function support means that
an aggregate's components may be a function,
in which case, the agg is the owner,
so the agg's body and its other components
become the function's environs .
[5.18: clarification:
. agg's can have bodies like Ada packages;
and if the agg' body contains the function body
only then does the agg' own the function .
5.31: 6.28:
. the agg'component can also be
a pointer to an external function;
such a function then has no way to reach
agg' components;
conversely, Ada's stub declaration allows for
an agg'owned function to be defined externally;
it's still declared locally if not defined so,
and declaration is what gives it local access,
and a locality to call its own .]
[5.17:
. an agg's components can be addressed in 2 ways:
# directly:
. a function it owns knows what's available
and reaches an external x with (../x) .
# a filesystem approach:
. the function can get a list of
the names of surrounding components,
just as a human asks a filesystem
for a directory listing .
--
. a function's use of (self`name) could return
the name of the component it's been assigned to ... 6.1:
. it could be assigned to more than
one component of its owner;
so, that would have to be a list .]
5.31: deleting self:
. can a function delete itself from a agg'?
it can reach and modify other components
from within the agg' it's a component of;
so why not be able to delete itself?
it could still run after such a deletion
because it's an active process
and each act'rec on the stack display
is paired with a pointer to the associated code . [6.1:
. one reason for deleting self could be
a varying method pattern:
it calls multiple agg'components,
some of which may be self,
and changes methods to meet new conditions .]

5.17: all accesses must be cap'based:
[5.16:
. how would an external function
ask for access to the class var's?
. it can't use ../ because it's
local to an instance, whereas
class var's are local to the type's body .
. it could work like a filesystem,
where functions can request a list
of their owner's class var's .
. the type's body allows access by
populating the class's locals list
with the addresses it wishes to share
rather than leaving the list null ...]
...
. the idea of assignable functions
having access to class var's
must be integrated with a security model
that considers who's asking for the access
and who's affected by it .
. it's not just a matter of selecting
which locals are visible,
but also deciding which functions
can have that access:
the filtering might be by function-type,
function-authors, or function-libraries .

5.18: dimensions of environs:
. a function.ptr assigned to an agg' component
is just like when passed to a subprogram param;
in either of these cases,
a function body's own environ
is not the same as caller's body .

. there can also be structural environs
(what agg'path was used for accessing
a copy of the function's address).
. when a call is made, the function gets a
return address that is a shortcut to
this scope path:
main/sub/nth step/m-th step of sub.body(eg, a loop) .
. that leads to the call's location
which includes the data path needed to
access the function: [6.28: ...
by looking on the stack's return address,
and then looking at the code
that launched that function call,
we are finding the structural environs .]

. some variants of lisp
feature dynamic scope
in which a called function can expect access to
the caller's environ's .
. is there any language that provides
access to the structural environs?
. lisp functions can also know
who their caller is,
and what their caller's code is .
. it seems like the
full generalization of that would be
pointers to all related structures:
the owner, the caller,
the call or return point,
and the path of caller's access to function .
. practically though,
the simple and safe way is
accessing only what's available at compile time .
. if the function wants to share the caller's locals,
it can declare an inout param
that callers need to fill;
if the caller wants a function to share,
it can take ownership of the function .

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