Jonadab the Unsightly One writes: > Michele Dondi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > I must say I've still not read all apocalypses, and OTOH I suspect > > that this could be done more or less easily with a custom function > > (provided that variables will have a method to keep track of their > > history, or, more reasonably, will be *allowed* to have it), but I > > wonder if Perl6 may include a builtin undo() function to recover > > values prior, say, to the last assignement (or push() or, > > etc. etc.[*]) > > Hmmm... > > If we have $foo.undo(), then we will want a multi-step undo to go with > it, probably $foo.undo($n), with $n able to be negative for redo. Are > we prepared to give the mouse that cookie? (This is not intended as a > rhetorical question; I suspect people will stake out both positions.) > > I heard a rumour we were getting continuations (a la Scheme). They > wouldn't be tied to a specific variable like what you propose, but > they would allow the state of the entire process to be rolled back to > an earlier point, or something along those lines.
Oh no! Someone doesn't understand continuations! How could this happen?! :-) You need two things to bring the state of the process back to an earlier state: undo and continuations. People say continuations are like time traveling; I like to put it this way: Say you're in the kitchen in front of the refrigerator, thinking about a sandwitch. You take a continuation right there and stick it in your pocket. Then you get some turkey and bread out of the refrigerator and make yourself a sandwitch, which is now sitting on the counter. You invoke the continuation in your pocket, and you find yourself standing in front of the refrigerator again, thinking about a sandwitch. But fortunately, there's a sandwitch on the counter, and all the materials used to make it are gone. So you eat it. :-) A continuation doesn't save data. It's just a closure that closes over the execution stack (and any lexicals associated with it; thus the "I want a sandwitch" thought). If things change between the taking and invoking of the continuation, those things remain changed after invoking. > You could make the programmer specify which variables he wants delta > data for, and then any *others* wouldn't keep it and wouldn't be > undoable. > > use undo <<foo bar baz>>; # Or use the funny characters I can't type. > my $foo++; $foo.undo(); # Undoes the increment. > my $quux++; $quux.undo(); # Throws an exception or something. A much more useful way to do this would be: use undo << $foo $bar $baz >>; my $foo = 41; my $state = undo.save; $foo++; $foo.undo($state); # or perhaps $state.remember; That is, you save the state at certain points in execution and remember them later, rather than quantizing on some arbitrary "step size" (one instruction). I don't want to think about what happens when you write: use undo << $state >>; ... Luke > -- > $;=sub{$/};@;=map{my($a,$b)=($_,$;);$;=sub{$a.$b->()}} > split//,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ --";$\=$ ;-> ();print$/ >