Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-04 Thread Artur Skawina
On 02/04/12 23:44, Timon Gehr wrote:
> On 02/04/2012 11:23 PM, Artur Skawina wrote:
>> On 02/04/12 22:20, Timon Gehr wrote:
>>> On 02/04/2012 06:55 PM, Artur Skawina wrote:
 Semi-related quiz:

  immutable(char)[] a = "a";
  const(char)[] b = "b";

  auto aa = a ~ a;
  auto bb = b ~ b;
  auto ab = a ~ b;

  writeln("aa: ", typeid(aa), "  bb: ", typeid(bb), "  ab: ", 
 typeid(ab));

 And the question is: How many people, who have not already been bitten by 
 this,
 will give the correct answer to: "What will this program print?"?

>>>
>>> I think this is covered in this issue:
>>>
>>> http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=7311
>>>
>>> But feel free to open a more specific enhancement/bug report.
>>
>> Apparently, there's already a bug open for everything.
>> I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. :)
>>
>> I don't think there's one correct answer here - you're right that unique 
>> const
>> does not really make sense. But is mutable (non-const) really better than
>> immutable? It depends, sometimes you will want one, sometimes the other.
>> I first ran into this while doing a custom string class - there it was the 
>> cause
>> of the one and only cast - (string ~ const(char)[]) can obviously still be a
>> string, but the compiler won't accept it without a cast.
>> I'm not sure how often you'll want the result of concatenation to be mutable,
>> compared to immutable. Anyway, the result really is "unique", not mutable, 
>> const
>> or immutable, at least until it is converted to one of those, hence the 
>> solution
>> described below.
>>
> 
> 
> Well, string = string ~ const(char)[] and char[] = string ~ const(char)[] 
> should work, regardless of the type of immutable[] ~ const[]. The compiler 
> can track the uniqueness of the data at the expression level without actually 
> introducing a type modifier. There is precedent: Array literals are 
> covariant, because it is safe. Do you want to open the enhancement or should 
> I do it? (I really thought I already had an issue open for this...)

Please do; i've been avoiding filing dmd bugs, because i'm only using gdc, not 
dmd.
(so i can't even easily check if the issue still exists in the current tree)

artur


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-04 Thread Timon Gehr

On 02/04/2012 11:23 PM, Artur Skawina wrote:

On 02/04/12 22:20, Timon Gehr wrote:

On 02/04/2012 06:55 PM, Artur Skawina wrote:

On 02/04/12 02:03, Timon Gehr wrote:

On 02/03/2012 11:08 AM, Artur Skawina wrote:

On 02/03/12 00:20, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter
const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is really
annoying. Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a
reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types,
because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you want to
return anything from that variable. It's particularly problematic with arrays,
since it's frequently desirable to return slices of them, and scope (and
therefore in) would prevent that. It's useful in some instances (particularly
with delegates), but I'd use in _very_ sparingly. It's almost always more
trouble than it's worth IMHO.


BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not using
it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get the
benefits.


I totally agree. Most function arguments are not escaped. However, it is nice 
that the shortest storage class, 'in', implies scope.


There are currently two problems with using "in": a) the one mentioned, where
using in/scope means you can't (or shouldn't be able to) pass the thing to 
another
function w/o scope marked args, and b) "in" implies "const", which is a problem
because you may want to reassign the argument - a perfectly safe thing to do.
With "const" itself you can use parentheses to limit its scope to not include
the reference itself; the problematic case is the builtin "string" alias, ie
"int f(in string s);" would have to allow reassigning 's' inside the function.


Semi-related quiz:

 immutable(char)[] a = "a";
 const(char)[] b = "b";

 auto aa = a ~ a;
 auto bb = b ~ b;
 auto ab = a ~ b;

 writeln("aa: ", typeid(aa), "  bb: ", typeid(bb), "  ab: ", typeid(ab));

And the question is: How many people, who have not already been bitten by this,
will give the correct answer to: "What will this program print?"?



I think this is covered in this issue:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=7311

But feel free to open a more specific enhancement/bug report.


Apparently, there's already a bug open for everything.
I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. :)

I don't think there's one correct answer here - you're right that unique const
does not really make sense. But is mutable (non-const) really better than
immutable? It depends, sometimes you will want one, sometimes the other.
I first ran into this while doing a custom string class - there it was the cause
of the one and only cast - (string ~ const(char)[]) can obviously still be a
string, but the compiler won't accept it without a cast.
I'm not sure how often you'll want the result of concatenation to be mutable,
compared to immutable. Anyway, the result really is "unique", not mutable, const
or immutable, at least until it is converted to one of those, hence the solution
described below.




Well, string = string ~ const(char)[] and char[] = string ~ 
const(char)[] should work, regardless of the type of immutable[] ~ 
const[]. The compiler can track the uniqueness of the data at the 
expression level without actually introducing a type modifier. There is 
precedent: Array literals are covariant, because it is safe. Do you want 
to open the enhancement or should I do it? (I really thought I already 
had an issue open for this...)



There should have been another class, in addition to immutable/const, say 
"uniq".
For cases where an expression results in new unique objects. This class 
implicitly
converts to any of const/immutable and mutates to the new type. IOW

 string a = "a";
 char[] b = "b";

 auto c = a ~ b;  // typeid(c) == (uniq(char)[])

 string d = c; // Fine, "c" is unique and can be safely treated as a string.
   // But, from now on, "c" is (immutable(char)[]) so:
 char[] e = c; // Fails.

 // And the other way:

 auto f = a ~ b;
 char[] g = f; // OK
 string h = f  // Fails, as f is now a (char[])

No need for unsafe-looking casts, just so that the compiler accepts perfectly 
safe
code, like: "string c = ab;", which would currently fail if used in the above 
quiz,
and has to be written as "string c = cast(string)ab;". [1]

artur

[1] Using a helper template is not different from adding a comment, it only 
serves
to document /why/ the programmer had to something, which is only a workaround 
for
a language/compiler limitation. "Compiler" because at least the simple cases 
could
be silently fixed in a backward compatible way (by not disallowing safe 
conversions).
"Language" beca

Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-04 Thread Artur Skawina
On 02/04/12 22:20, Timon Gehr wrote:
> On 02/04/2012 06:55 PM, Artur Skawina wrote:
>> On 02/04/12 02:03, Timon Gehr wrote:
>>> On 02/03/2012 11:08 AM, Artur Skawina wrote:
 On 02/03/12 00:20, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter
> const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is 
> really
> annoying. Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a
> reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types,
> because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you 
> want to
> return anything from that variable. It's particularly problematic with 
> arrays,
> since it's frequently desirable to return slices of them, and scope (and
> therefore in) would prevent that. It's useful in some instances 
> (particularly
> with delegates), but I'd use in _very_ sparingly. It's almost always more
> trouble than it's worth IMHO.

 BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
 arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
 escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not 
 using
 it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get the
 benefits.
>>>
>>> I totally agree. Most function arguments are not escaped. However, it is 
>>> nice that the shortest storage class, 'in', implies scope.
>>
>> There are currently two problems with using "in": a) the one mentioned, where
>> using in/scope means you can't (or shouldn't be able to) pass the thing to 
>> another
>> function w/o scope marked args, and b) "in" implies "const", which is a 
>> problem
>> because you may want to reassign the argument - a perfectly safe thing to do.
>> With "const" itself you can use parentheses to limit its scope to not include
>> the reference itself; the problematic case is the builtin "string" alias, ie
>> "int f(in string s);" would have to allow reassigning 's' inside the 
>> function.
>>
>>
>> Semi-related quiz:
>>
>> immutable(char)[] a = "a";
>> const(char)[] b = "b";
>>
>> auto aa = a ~ a;
>> auto bb = b ~ b;
>> auto ab = a ~ b;
>>
>> writeln("aa: ", typeid(aa), "  bb: ", typeid(bb), "  ab: ", typeid(ab));
>>
>> And the question is: How many people, who have not already been bitten by 
>> this,
>> will give the correct answer to: "What will this program print?"?
>>
> 
> I think this is covered in this issue:
> 
> http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=7311
> 
> But feel free to open a more specific enhancement/bug report.

Apparently, there's already a bug open for everything.
I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. :)

I don't think there's one correct answer here - you're right that unique const
does not really make sense. But is mutable (non-const) really better than 
immutable? It depends, sometimes you will want one, sometimes the other.
I first ran into this while doing a custom string class - there it was the cause
of the one and only cast - (string ~ const(char)[]) can obviously still be a
string, but the compiler won't accept it without a cast.
I'm not sure how often you'll want the result of concatenation to be mutable,
compared to immutable. Anyway, the result really is "unique", not mutable, const
or immutable, at least until it is converted to one of those, hence the solution
described below.

>> There should have been another class, in addition to immutable/const, say 
>> "uniq".
>> For cases where an expression results in new unique objects. This class 
>> implicitly
>> converts to any of const/immutable and mutates to the new type. IOW
>>
>> string a = "a";
>> char[] b = "b";
>>
>> auto c = a ~ b;  // typeid(c) == (uniq(char)[])
>>
>> string d = c; // Fine, "c" is unique and can be safely treated as a 
>> string.
>>   // But, from now on, "c" is (immutable(char)[]) so:
>> char[] e = c; // Fails.
>>
>> // And the other way:
>>
>> auto f = a ~ b;
>> char[] g = f; // OK
>> string h = f  // Fails, as f is now a (char[])
>>
>> No need for unsafe-looking casts, just so that the compiler accepts 
>> perfectly safe
>> code, like: "string c = ab;", which would currently fail if used in the 
>> above quiz,
>> and has to be written as "string c = cast(string)ab;". [1]
>>
>> artur
>>
>> [1] Using a helper template is not different from adding a comment, it only 
>> serves
>> to document /why/ the programmer had to something, which is only a 
>> workaround for
>> a language/compiler limitation. "Compiler" because at least the simple cases 
>> could
>> be silently fixed in a backward compatible way (by not disallowing safe 
>> conversions).
>> "Language" because "uniq" would also be useful when the programmer knows it 
>> applies,
>> but the compiler can't figure it out by itself.
> 
> I am certain we'll get something like this ev

Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-04 Thread Timon Gehr

On 02/04/2012 06:55 PM, Artur Skawina wrote:

On 02/04/12 02:03, Timon Gehr wrote:

On 02/03/2012 11:08 AM, Artur Skawina wrote:

On 02/03/12 00:20, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter
const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is really
annoying. Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a
reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types,
because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you want to
return anything from that variable. It's particularly problematic with arrays,
since it's frequently desirable to return slices of them, and scope (and
therefore in) would prevent that. It's useful in some instances (particularly
with delegates), but I'd use in _very_ sparingly. It's almost always more
trouble than it's worth IMHO.


BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not using
it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get the
benefits.


I totally agree. Most function arguments are not escaped. However, it is nice 
that the shortest storage class, 'in', implies scope.


There are currently two problems with using "in": a) the one mentioned, where
using in/scope means you can't (or shouldn't be able to) pass the thing to 
another
function w/o scope marked args, and b) "in" implies "const", which is a problem
because you may want to reassign the argument - a perfectly safe thing to do.
With "const" itself you can use parentheses to limit its scope to not include
the reference itself; the problematic case is the builtin "string" alias, ie
"int f(in string s);" would have to allow reassigning 's' inside the function.


Semi-related quiz:

immutable(char)[] a = "a";
const(char)[] b = "b";

auto aa = a ~ a;
auto bb = b ~ b;
auto ab = a ~ b;

writeln("aa: ", typeid(aa), "  bb: ", typeid(bb), "  ab: ", typeid(ab));

And the question is: How many people, who have not already been bitten by this,
will give the correct answer to: "What will this program print?"?



I think this is covered in this issue:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=7311

But feel free to open a more specific enhancement/bug report.



There should have been another class, in addition to immutable/const, say 
"uniq".
For cases where an expression results in new unique objects. This class 
implicitly
converts to any of const/immutable and mutates to the new type. IOW

string a = "a";
char[] b = "b";

auto c = a ~ b;  // typeid(c) == (uniq(char)[])

string d = c; // Fine, "c" is unique and can be safely treated as a string.
  // But, from now on, "c" is (immutable(char)[]) so:
char[] e = c; // Fails.

// And the other way:

auto f = a ~ b;
char[] g = f; // OK
string h = f  // Fails, as f is now a (char[])

No need for unsafe-looking casts, just so that the compiler accepts perfectly 
safe
code, like: "string c = ab;", which would currently fail if used in the above 
quiz,
and has to be written as "string c = cast(string)ab;". [1]

artur

[1] Using a helper template is not different from adding a comment, it only 
serves
to document /why/ the programmer had to something, which is only a workaround 
for
a language/compiler limitation. "Compiler" because at least the simple cases 
could
be silently fixed in a backward compatible way (by not disallowing safe 
conversions).
"Language" because "uniq" would also be useful when the programmer knows it 
applies,
but the compiler can't figure it out by itself.


I am certain we'll get something like this eventually, once the compiler 
bug count has shrunk sufficiently. It is a natural thing to add.


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-04 Thread Artur Skawina
On 02/04/12 02:03, Timon Gehr wrote:
> On 02/03/2012 11:08 AM, Artur Skawina wrote:
>> On 02/03/12 00:20, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
>>> in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter
>>> const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is 
>>> really
>>> annoying. Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a
>>> reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types,
>>> because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you want 
>>> to
>>> return anything from that variable. It's particularly problematic with 
>>> arrays,
>>> since it's frequently desirable to return slices of them, and scope (and
>>> therefore in) would prevent that. It's useful in some instances 
>>> (particularly
>>> with delegates), but I'd use in _very_ sparingly. It's almost always more
>>> trouble than it's worth IMHO.
>>
>> BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
>> arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
>> escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not using
>> it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get the
>> benefits.
> 
> I totally agree. Most function arguments are not escaped. However, it is nice 
> that the shortest storage class, 'in', implies scope.

There are currently two problems with using "in": a) the one mentioned, where
using in/scope means you can't (or shouldn't be able to) pass the thing to 
another
function w/o scope marked args, and b) "in" implies "const", which is a problem
because you may want to reassign the argument - a perfectly safe thing to do.
With "const" itself you can use parentheses to limit its scope to not include
the reference itself; the problematic case is the builtin "string" alias, ie
"int f(in string s);" would have to allow reassigning 's' inside the function.


Semi-related quiz:

   immutable(char)[] a = "a";
   const(char)[] b = "b";

   auto aa = a ~ a;
   auto bb = b ~ b;
   auto ab = a ~ b;

   writeln("aa: ", typeid(aa), "  bb: ", typeid(bb), "  ab: ", typeid(ab));

And the question is: How many people, who have not already been bitten by this,
will give the correct answer to: "What will this program print?"?


There should have been another class, in addition to immutable/const, say 
"uniq".
For cases where an expression results in new unique objects. This class 
implicitly
converts to any of const/immutable and mutates to the new type. IOW

   string a = "a";
   char[] b = "b";
   
   auto c = a ~ b;  // typeid(c) == (uniq(char)[])
   
   string d = c; // Fine, "c" is unique and can be safely treated as a string.
 // But, from now on, "c" is (immutable(char)[]) so:
   char[] e = c; // Fails.
   
   // And the other way:
   
   auto f = a ~ b;
   char[] g = f; // OK
   string h = f  // Fails, as f is now a (char[])

No need for unsafe-looking casts, just so that the compiler accepts perfectly 
safe
code, like: "string c = ab;", which would currently fail if used in the above 
quiz,
and has to be written as "string c = cast(string)ab;". [1]

artur

[1] Using a helper template is not different from adding a comment, it only 
serves
to document /why/ the programmer had to something, which is only a workaround 
for
a language/compiler limitation. "Compiler" because at least the simple cases 
could
be silently fixed in a backward compatible way (by not disallowing safe 
conversions).
"Language" because "uniq" would also be useful when the programmer knows it 
applies,
but the compiler can't figure it out by itself.


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread Daniel Murphy
"bearophile"  wrote in message 
news:jgi3jn$2o6p$1...@digitalmars.com...
> I'd like to ask this to be valid, to shorten my code:
> alias immutable imm;
> Is this silly?
>

Yes =)

immutable might be more characters than you want to type, but at this point 
it's extremely unlikely it will be changed or a synonym will be added.

You can always define something like this:

template imm(T) { alias immutable T imm; }

imm!int cantchangethis = ...; 




Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread bearophile
Timon Gehr:

> However, it is 
> nice that the shortest storage class, 'in', implies scope.

I'd like to ask this to be valid, to shorten my code:
alias immutable imm;
Is this silly?

Bye,
bearophile


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread Timon Gehr

On 02/03/2012 01:06 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

On Friday, February 03, 2012 11:08:54 Artur Skawina wrote:

BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not
using it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get
the benefits.


That would destroy slicing. I'm firmly of the opinion that scope should be used
sparingly.

- Jonathan M Davis


It could be enabled on by type basis.


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread Timon Gehr

On 02/03/2012 11:08 AM, Artur Skawina wrote:

On 02/03/12 00:20, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter
const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is really
annoying. Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a
reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types,
because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you want to
return anything from that variable. It's particularly problematic with arrays,
since it's frequently desirable to return slices of them, and scope (and
therefore in) would prevent that. It's useful in some instances (particularly
with delegates), but I'd use in _very_ sparingly. It's almost always more
trouble than it's worth IMHO.


BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not using
it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get the
benefits.


I totally agree. Most function arguments are not escaped. However, it is 
nice that the shortest storage class, 'in', implies scope.




If it isn't obvious why - GC. The compiler can optimize the cases where it
knows a newly allocated object can't escape and reduce or omit the GC overhead.
And yes, it can also do this automatically - but that requires analyzing the
whole call chain, which is a) not always possible and b) much more expensive.

artur


Any optimization that relies on alias analysis potentially benefits from 
'scope'.


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread xancorreu

Al 03/02/12 00:14, En/na bearophile ha escrit:

xancorreu:


But you "only" put a "in" in
recFactorial function argument. What this mean? **Why** this is more
efficient than mine?

It wasn't meant to improve performance. "in" turns a function argument to "input only" 
(and eventually scoped too). Generally when you program in D2 it's a good practice to use immutability where 
you can and where this doesn't cause other performance or typing problems. Immutability avoids bugs, allows a 
stronger purity (and I have seen DMD is often able to compiler a little more efficient program if you use 
immutability/constants everywhere they are a good fit). So 95% of the arguments of your program are better 
tagged with "in".


Mmm. Thanks. It remembers me val in scala ;-)
I note it for  optimizations.

Bye,
bearophile




Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread bearophile
Artur Skawina:

> Would marking the ctor as "scope" (similarly to "const" or "pure") work for 
> your
> case? (it is reasonable to expect that the compiler checks this by itself; 
> it's
> per-type, so not nearly as expensive as analyzing the flow)

Maybe this is a topic worth discussing in the main D newsgroup (and maybe later 
worth an enhancement request).

Bye,
bearophile


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread bearophile
Jonathan M Davis:

> in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter
> const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is really
> annoying.

Having const value types is useful because you can't change them later inside 
the method. This helps you avoid bugs like:


void foo(int n) {
  // uses n here
  // modifies n here by mistake
  // uses n here again, assuming it's the 'real' n argument
}


When you program you think of arguments as the inputs of your algorithm, so if 
you mutate them by mistake, this sometimes causes bugs if later you think they 
are the real inputs of your algorithm still.

Generally in D code all variables that can be const/immutable should be 
const/immutable, unless this causes problems or is impossible or it causes 
signficant performance troubles. This avoids some bugs, helps DMD optimize 
better (I have seen this), and helps the person that reads the code to 
understand the code better (because he/she/shi is free to focus on just the 
mutable variables).

It's better to have const function arguments, unless this is not possible, or 
for not common situations where a mutable input helps you optimize your 
algorithm better (especially if the profiler has told you so).


> Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a
> reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types,
> because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you want to
> return anything from that variable.

Think of returning a part of a mutable input argument as an optimization, to be 
used when you know you need the extra speed. Otherwise where performance is not 
a problem it's often safer to return a const value or to return something new 
created inside the function/method. This programming style avoids many mistakes 
(it's useful in Java coding too).
>From what I've seen, in my D code only a small percentage of the program lines 
>need to be optimized and use C-style coding. For most of the lines of code a 
>more functional D style is enough, and safer. The idea is "mutability where 
>needed, and a bit more functional-style everywhere else" :-)

Bye,
bearophile


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread Artur Skawina
On 02/03/12 13:06, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> On Friday, February 03, 2012 11:08:54 Artur Skawina wrote:
>> BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
>> arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
>> escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not
>> using it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get
>> the benefits.
> 
> That would destroy slicing. I'm firmly of the opinion that scope should be 
> used 
> sparingly.

Well, not doing it destroys performance. [1] It's a trade-off. Also, i don't
know if "destroy slicing" is accurate.

Things like 'string f(string s) { return s[1..$]; }' needs to continue to work;
the object does not really "escape" from the POV of f(), but the caller has to
assume it's not dead after returning from the function. Doing this by default 
for
any functions returning refs that could potentially hold on to the passed object
would make things work. For the cases that where the called function knows that 
it will always return unique objects the signature could look like
'new string f(string s);', but that's only an optimization.

Any other problematic slicing use, that i'm not thinking of right now?

artur


[1] I had a case, where turning on logging in some code made the program 
unusable,
because instead of IIRC ~40s it took 40+ minutes, at which point i gave up and
killed it... The profile looked like this:

37.62%  uint gc.gcx.Gcx.fullcollect(void*)
20.47%  uint gc.gcbits.GCBits.test(uint)
13.80%  uint gc.gcbits.GCBits.testSet(uint)
10.15%  pure nothrow @safe bool std.uni.isGraphical(dchar)
 3.33%  _D3std5array17__T8AppenderTAyaZ8Appender10__T3putTwZ3putMF
 2.78%  0x11025a
 2.13%  _D3std6format65__T13formatElementTS3std5array17__T8Appende
 1.64%  _D3std6format56__T10formatCharTS3std5array17__T8AppenderTA
 1.37%  pure @safe uint std.utf.encode(ref char[4], dchar)
 0.88%  void* gc.gcx.GC.malloc(uint, uint, uint*)
 0.50%  pure nothrow @safe bool std.uni.binarySearch2(dchar, 
immutable(dchar[2][]))
 0.45%  void gc.gcbits.GCBits.set(uint)
 0.37%  void gc.gcbits.GCBits.clear(uint)
 0.34%  __divdi3

That shows several problems, but even after fixing the obvious ones (inlining
GCBits, making std.uni.isGraphical sane (this, btw, reduced its cost to ~1%))
GC still takes up most of time (not remembering the details, but certainly >50%,
it could have been >80%).
Some slowdown from the IO and formatting is expected, but spending most cycles
on GC is not reasonable, when most objects never leave the scope (in this case
it was just strings passed to writeln etc IIRC).


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread Jonathan M Davis
On Friday, February 03, 2012 11:08:54 Artur Skawina wrote:
> BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
> arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
> escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not
> using it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get
> the benefits.

That would destroy slicing. I'm firmly of the opinion that scope should be used 
sparingly.

- Jonathan M Davis


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread Alex Rønne Petersen

On 03-02-2012 11:41, Artur Skawina wrote:

On 02/03/12 11:21, Alex Rønne Petersen wrote:

On 03-02-2012 11:08, Artur Skawina wrote:

On 02/03/12 00:20, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter
const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is really
annoying. Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a
reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types,
because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you want to
return anything from that variable. It's particularly problematic with arrays,
since it's frequently desirable to return slices of them, and scope (and
therefore in) would prevent that. It's useful in some instances (particularly
with delegates), but I'd use in _very_ sparingly. It's almost always more
trouble than it's worth IMHO.


BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not using
it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get the
benefits.

If it isn't obvious why - GC. The compiler can optimize the cases where it
knows a newly allocated object can't escape and reduce or omit the GC overhead.
And yes, it can also do this automatically - but that requires analyzing the
whole call chain, which is a) not always possible and b) much more expensive.

artur


It is not that simple.

If the class's constructor passes 'this' off to some arbitrary code, this 
optimization breaks completely. You would need whole-program analysis to have 
the slightest hope of doing this optimization correctly.


It's about enabling the optimization for as much code as possible. And probably
the most interesting cases are strings/arrays - the GC overhead can be huge if
you do a lot of concatenation etc.

Would marking the ctor as "scope" (similarly to "const" or "pure") work for your
case? (it is reasonable to expect that the compiler checks this by itself; it's
per-type, so not nearly as expensive as analyzing the flow)

artur


Well, you would have to mark methods as scope too, as they could be 
passing off 'this' as well.


It's probably doable that way, but explicit annotations kind of suck. :(

--
- Alex


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread Artur Skawina
On 02/03/12 11:41, Artur Skawina wrote:
> On 02/03/12 11:21, Alex Rønne Petersen wrote:
>> On 03-02-2012 11:08, Artur Skawina wrote:
>>> On 02/03/12 00:20, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
 in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter
 const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is 
 really
 annoying. Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a
 reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types,
 because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you want 
 to
 return anything from that variable. It's particularly problematic with 
 arrays,
 since it's frequently desirable to return slices of them, and scope (and
 therefore in) would prevent that. It's useful in some instances 
 (particularly
 with delegates), but I'd use in _very_ sparingly. It's almost always more
 trouble than it's worth IMHO.
>>>
>>> BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
>>> arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
>>> escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not 
>>> using
>>> it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get the
>>> benefits.
>>>
>>> If it isn't obvious why - GC. The compiler can optimize the cases where it
>>> knows a newly allocated object can't escape and reduce or omit the GC 
>>> overhead.
>>> And yes, it can also do this automatically - but that requires analyzing the
>>> whole call chain, which is a) not always possible and b) much more 
>>> expensive.
>>>
>>> artur
>>
>> It is not that simple.
>>
>> If the class's constructor passes 'this' off to some arbitrary code, this 
>> optimization breaks completely. You would need whole-program analysis to 
>> have the slightest hope of doing this optimization correctly.
> 
> It's about enabling the optimization for as much code as possible. And 
> probably
> the most interesting cases are strings/arrays - the GC overhead can be huge if
> you do a lot of concatenation etc.
> 
> Would marking the ctor as "scope" (similarly to "const" or "pure") work for 
> your
> case? (it is reasonable to expect that the compiler checks this by itself; 
> it's
> per-type, so not nearly as expensive as analyzing the flow)

Actually, passing 'this' to some "some arbitrary code" isn't a problem, unless
the code in question has the "esc" annotation, in which case you need to mark
the ctor (or any other method) as "esq" too; that will turn off the 
optimization,
for this struct/class, obviously. 
That's why "scope" needs to be the default - mixing it with code that does not
guarantee that the object does not escape does not really work - you cannot call
anything not marked with "scope" with an already scoped object. Which means you
need to mark practically every function argument as scope - this doesn't scale 
well.

artur


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread Artur Skawina
On 02/03/12 11:21, Alex Rønne Petersen wrote:
> On 03-02-2012 11:08, Artur Skawina wrote:
>> On 02/03/12 00:20, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
>>> in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter
>>> const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is 
>>> really
>>> annoying. Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a
>>> reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types,
>>> because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you want 
>>> to
>>> return anything from that variable. It's particularly problematic with 
>>> arrays,
>>> since it's frequently desirable to return slices of them, and scope (and
>>> therefore in) would prevent that. It's useful in some instances 
>>> (particularly
>>> with delegates), but I'd use in _very_ sparingly. It's almost always more
>>> trouble than it's worth IMHO.
>>
>> BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
>> arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
>> escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not using
>> it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get the
>> benefits.
>>
>> If it isn't obvious why - GC. The compiler can optimize the cases where it
>> knows a newly allocated object can't escape and reduce or omit the GC 
>> overhead.
>> And yes, it can also do this automatically - but that requires analyzing the
>> whole call chain, which is a) not always possible and b) much more expensive.
>>
>> artur
> 
> It is not that simple.
> 
> If the class's constructor passes 'this' off to some arbitrary code, this 
> optimization breaks completely. You would need whole-program analysis to have 
> the slightest hope of doing this optimization correctly.

It's about enabling the optimization for as much code as possible. And probably
the most interesting cases are strings/arrays - the GC overhead can be huge if
you do a lot of concatenation etc.

Would marking the ctor as "scope" (similarly to "const" or "pure") work for your
case? (it is reasonable to expect that the compiler checks this by itself; it's
per-type, so not nearly as expensive as analyzing the flow)

artur


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread Alex Rønne Petersen

On 03-02-2012 11:08, Artur Skawina wrote:

On 02/03/12 00:20, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter
const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is really
annoying. Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a
reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types,
because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you want to
return anything from that variable. It's particularly problematic with arrays,
since it's frequently desirable to return slices of them, and scope (and
therefore in) would prevent that. It's useful in some instances (particularly
with delegates), but I'd use in _very_ sparingly. It's almost always more
trouble than it's worth IMHO.


BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not using
it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get the
benefits.

If it isn't obvious why - GC. The compiler can optimize the cases where it
knows a newly allocated object can't escape and reduce or omit the GC overhead.
And yes, it can also do this automatically - but that requires analyzing the
whole call chain, which is a) not always possible and b) much more expensive.

artur


It is not that simple.

If the class's constructor passes 'this' off to some arbitrary code, 
this optimization breaks completely. You would need whole-program 
analysis to have the slightest hope of doing this optimization correctly.


--
- Alex


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-03 Thread Artur Skawina
On 02/03/12 00:20, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter 
> const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is really 
> annoying. Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a 
> reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types, 
> because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you want to 
> return anything from that variable. It's particularly problematic with 
> arrays, 
> since it's frequently desirable to return slices of them, and scope (and 
> therefore in) would prevent that. It's useful in some instances (particularly 
> with delegates), but I'd use in _very_ sparingly. It's almost always more 
> trouble than it's worth IMHO.

BTW, scope should have been the default for *all* reference type function
arguments, with an explicit modifier, say "esc", required to let the thing
escape. It's an all-or-nothing thing, just like immutable strings - not using
it everywhere is painful, but once you switch everything over you get the
benefits.

If it isn't obvious why - GC. The compiler can optimize the cases where it
knows a newly allocated object can't escape and reduce or omit the GC overhead.
And yes, it can also do this automatically - but that requires analyzing the
whole call chain, which is a) not always possible and b) much more expensive.

artur 


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread H. S. Teoh
On Thu, Feb 02, 2012 at 03:26:52PM -0800, Ali Çehreli wrote:
> 
> On 02/02/2012 03:10 PM, Timon Gehr wrote:
> 
> > LList!ulong fib(){
> > LList!ulong r;
> > r=cons(st(1UL),cons(st(1UL),lz(()=>zipWith((Lazy!ulong a, Lazy!ulong
> > b)=>lz(()=>a+b),r,r.tail)(;
> > return r;
> > }
> 
> Sorry, wrong newsgroup. alt.comp.lang.perl is around the corner. :p
[...]

You mean alt.comp.lang.lisp. :-)


T

-- 
Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous? -- Hobbes, from 
Calvin & Hobbes


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread Ali Çehreli


On 02/02/2012 03:10 PM, Timon Gehr wrote:

> LList!ulong fib(){
> LList!ulong r;
> r=cons(st(1UL),cons(st(1UL),lz(()=>zipWith((Lazy!ulong a, Lazy!ulong
> b)=>lz(()=>a+b),r,r.tail)(;
> return r;
> }

Sorry, wrong newsgroup. alt.comp.lang.perl is around the corner. :p

Ali


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread H. S. Teoh
On Fri, Feb 03, 2012 at 12:10:01AM +0100, Timon Gehr wrote:
[...]
> LList!ulong fib(){
> LList!ulong r;
> r=cons(st(1UL),cons(st(1UL),lz(()=>zipWith((Lazy!ulong a,
> Lazy!ulong b)=>lz(()=>a+b),r,r.tail)(;
> return r;
> }

Whoa. A caching recursive definition of fibonacci. Impressive!

Now I wonder if we can do this with the Ackermann function... ;-)


T

-- 
"640K ought to be enough" -- Bill G., 1984.
"The Internet is not a primary goal for PC usage" -- Bill G., 1995.
"Linux has no impact on Microsoft's strategy" -- Bill G., 1999.


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread Jonathan M Davis
On Thursday, February 02, 2012 18:17:36 bearophile wrote:
> Timon Gehr:
> > This is not a tail-recursive function. And neither is recFactorial, my
> > bad. Anyway, my point was that the compiler should not generate code
> > that blows up on a (in principle) perfectly sane implementation.
> 
> Is it possible to create a function attribute like @tail_recursive that
> produces a compile error if you apply it to a function that's not
> tail-recursive?

I suspect that Walter would feel the same way about that that he feels about 
something like marking functions as inline - i.e. that sort of thing should be 
left up to the compiler to optimize or not as it sees appropriate.

- Jonathan M Davis


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread Jonathan M Davis
On Thursday, February 02, 2012 18:14:25 bearophile wrote:
> xancorreu:
> > But you "only" put a "in" in
> > recFactorial function argument. What this mean? **Why** this is more
> > efficient than mine?
> 
> It wasn't meant to improve performance. "in" turns a function argument to
> "input only" (and eventually scoped too). Generally when you program in D2
> it's a good practice to use immutability where you can and where this
> doesn't cause other performance or typing problems. Immutability avoids
> bugs, allows a stronger purity (and I have seen DMD is often able to
> compiler a little more efficient program if you use immutability/constants
> everywhere they are a good fit). So 95% of the arguments of your program
> are better tagged with "in".

in is pointless on value types. All it does is make the function parameter 
const, which really doesn't do much for you, and in some instances, is really 
annoying. Personally, I see no point in using in unless the parameter is a 
reference type, and even then, it's often a bad idea with reference types, 
because in is really const scope, and the scope is problematic if you want to 
return anything from that variable. It's particularly problematic with arrays, 
since it's frequently desirable to return slices of them, and scope (and 
therefore in) would prevent that. It's useful in some instances (particularly 
with delegates), but I'd use in _very_ sparingly. It's almost always more 
trouble than it's worth IMHO.

- Jonathan M Davis


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread bearophile
Timon Gehr:

> This is not a tail-recursive function. And neither is recFactorial, my 
> bad. Anyway, my point was that the compiler should not generate code 
> that blows up on a (in principle) perfectly sane implementation.

Is it possible to create a function attribute like @tail_recursive that 
produces a compile error if you apply it to a function that's not 
tail-recursive?

Bye,
bearophile


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread bearophile
xancorreu:

> But you "only" put a "in" in 
> recFactorial function argument. What this mean? **Why** this is more 
> efficient than mine?

It wasn't meant to improve performance. "in" turns a function argument to 
"input only" (and eventually scoped too). Generally when you program in D2 it's 
a good practice to use immutability where you can and where this doesn't cause 
other performance or typing problems. Immutability avoids bugs, allows a 
stronger purity (and I have seen DMD is often able to compiler a little more 
efficient program if you use immutability/constants everywhere they are a good 
fit). So 95% of the arguments of your program are better tagged with "in".

Bye,
bearophile


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread Timon Gehr

On 02/02/2012 11:47 PM, H. S. Teoh wrote:

On Thu, Feb 02, 2012 at 10:55:06PM +0100, Timon Gehr wrote:

On 02/02/2012 08:04 PM, xancorreu wrote:

[...]

For the other hand, how can increase the stack in linux?

[...]


I don't know, but it is best to just rewrite the code so that it does
not use recursion.

(This kind of problem is exactly the reason why any language standard
should mandate tail call optimization.)


Doesn't help badly-chosen implementations like:

int fib(int n) {
if (n<= 2) return 1;
else return fib(n-2) + fib(n+1);
}



This is not a tail-recursive function. And neither is recFactorial, my 
bad. Anyway, my point was that the compiler should not generate code 
that blows up on a (in principle) perfectly sane implementation.



There's not much the compiler can do to offset programmers choosing the
wrong algorithm for the job.


Agreed.


It can't replace educating programmers to
not implement things a certain way unless they have to.


T



Or unless they feel like it.

LList!ulong fib(){
LList!ulong r;
r=cons(st(1UL),cons(st(1UL),lz(()=>zipWith((Lazy!ulong a, 
Lazy!ulong b)=>lz(()=>a+b),r,r.tail)(;

return r;
}


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread H. S. Teoh
On Thu, Feb 02, 2012 at 02:47:22PM -0800, H. S. Teoh wrote:
[...]
>   int fib(int n) {
>   if (n <= 2) return 1;
>   else return fib(n-2) + fib(n+1);
[...]

Ugh. That should be fib(n-1), not fib(n+1). But no matter, such a thing
shouldn't ever be actually written and compiled, as Andrei says. :)


T

-- 
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread H. S. Teoh
On Thu, Feb 02, 2012 at 10:55:06PM +0100, Timon Gehr wrote:
> On 02/02/2012 08:04 PM, xancorreu wrote:
[...]
> >For the other hand, how can increase the stack in linux?
[...]
> 
> I don't know, but it is best to just rewrite the code so that it does
> not use recursion.
> 
> (This kind of problem is exactly the reason why any language standard
> should mandate tail call optimization.)

Doesn't help badly-chosen implementations like:

int fib(int n) {
if (n <= 2) return 1;
else return fib(n-2) + fib(n+1);
}

There's not much the compiler can do to offset programmers choosing the
wrong algorithm for the job. It can't replace educating programmers to
not implement things a certain way unless they have to.


T

-- 
Philosophy: how to make a career out of daydreaming.


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread Timon Gehr

On 02/02/2012 05:28 PM, xancorreu wrote:

I get "segment violation" error with ./factorial 40
How can I resolve it?

My code is:

import std.stdio, std.bigint, std.string, std.conv, std.stream;

BigInt recFactorial(int n) {
if (n == 0)
return BigInt(1);
else
return (BigInt(n) * recFactorial(n - 1));
}

void main(string[] args) {
if (args.length != 2)
writeln("Factorial requires a number");
else
try {
writeln(recFactorial(std.conv.to!int(args[1])));
} catch {
writeln("Error");
}
}



Thanks a lot,


import std.stdio, std.bigint, std.conv;

BigInt factorial(int n) {
BigInt result=1;
foreach(i;1..n) result*=i;
return result;
}

void main(string[] args) {
if (args.length != 2)
writeln("Factorial requires a number");
else
try {
writeln(factorial(std.conv.to!int(args[1])));
} catch {
writeln("Error");
}
}


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread Timon Gehr

On 02/02/2012 08:04 PM, xancorreu wrote:

Al 02/02/12 19:30, En/na bearophile ha escrit:

xancorreu:


I get "segment violation" error with ./factorial 40
How can I resolve it?

You are having a stack overflow. DMD currently doesn't print a good
message because of this regression that is being worked on:
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=6088

On Windows with DMD you increase the stack like this:
dmd -L/STACK:1 -run test2.d 40> result.txt

If it goes in overflow still, increase the stack some more. But it
will take a long time to compute the result even with the latest
2.058head with improved GC because the algorithm you have used to
compute the factorial is very bad.


I have rewritten your code like this:

import std.stdio, std.bigint, std.conv, std.exception;

BigInt recFactorial(in int n) {
if (n == 0)
return BigInt(1);
else
return BigInt(n) * recFactorial(n - 1);
}

void main(string[] args) {
if (args.length != 2) {
writeln("Factorial requires a number.");
} else {
try {
writeln(recFactorial(to!int(args[1])));
} catch (ConvException e) {
writeln("Error");
}
}
}


Note the usage of ConvException, it's a very good practice to never
use a generic "gotta catch them all" expression, because it leads to
hiding other bugs in your code, and this is a source for troubles.

Bye,
bearophile

Thank you very much for recode this. But you "only" put a "in" in
recFactorial function argument. What this mean? **Why** this is more
efficient than mine?


It is not. He just added some stylistic changes that don't change the 
code's semantics in any way.




For the other hand, how can increase the stack in linux?


Thanks,
Xan.


I don't know, but it is best to just rewrite the code so that it does 
not use recursion.


(This kind of problem is exactly the reason why any language standard 
should mandate tail call optimization.)




Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread xancorreu

Al 02/02/12 19:30, En/na bearophile ha escrit:

xancorreu:


I get "segment violation" error with  ./factorial 40
How can I resolve it?

You are having a stack overflow. DMD currently doesn't print a good message 
because of this regression that is being worked on:
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=6088

On Windows with DMD you increase the stack like this:
dmd -L/STACK:1 -run test2.d 40>  result.txt

If it goes in overflow still, increase the stack some more. But it will take a 
long time to compute the result even with the latest 2.058head with improved GC 
because the algorithm you have used to compute the factorial is very bad.


I have rewritten your code like this:

import std.stdio, std.bigint, std.conv, std.exception;

BigInt recFactorial(in int n) {
 if (n == 0)
 return BigInt(1);
 else
 return BigInt(n) * recFactorial(n - 1);
}

void main(string[] args) {
 if (args.length != 2) {
 writeln("Factorial requires a number.");
 } else {
 try {
writeln(recFactorial(to!int(args[1])));
 } catch (ConvException e) {
writeln("Error");
 }
 }
}


Note the usage of ConvException, it's a very good practice to never use a generic 
"gotta catch them all" expression, because it leads to hiding other bugs in 
your code, and this is a source for troubles.

Bye,
bearophile
Thank you very much for recode this. But you "only" put a "in" in 
recFactorial function argument. What this mean? **Why** this is more 
efficient than mine?


For the other hand, how can increase the stack in linux?


Thanks,
Xan.


Re: Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread bearophile
xancorreu:

> I get "segment violation" error with  ./factorial 40
> How can I resolve it?

You are having a stack overflow. DMD currently doesn't print a good message 
because of this regression that is being worked on:
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=6088

On Windows with DMD you increase the stack like this:
dmd -L/STACK:1 -run test2.d 40 > result.txt

If it goes in overflow still, increase the stack some more. But it will take a 
long time to compute the result even with the latest 2.058head with improved GC 
because the algorithm you have used to compute the factorial is very bad.


I have rewritten your code like this:

import std.stdio, std.bigint, std.conv, std.exception;

BigInt recFactorial(in int n) {
if (n == 0)
return BigInt(1);
else
return BigInt(n) * recFactorial(n - 1);
}

void main(string[] args) {
if (args.length != 2) {
writeln("Factorial requires a number.");
} else {
try {
   writeln(recFactorial(to!int(args[1])));
} catch (ConvException e) {
   writeln("Error");
}
}
}


Note the usage of ConvException, it's a very good practice to never use a 
generic "gotta catch them all" expression, because it leads to hiding other 
bugs in your code, and this is a source for troubles.

Bye,
bearophile


Segment violation (was Re: Why I could not cast string to int?)

2012-02-02 Thread xancorreu

I get "segment violation" error with  ./factorial 40
How can I resolve it?

My code is:

import std.stdio, std.bigint, std.string, std.conv, std.stream;

BigInt recFactorial(int n) {
if (n == 0)
return BigInt(1);
else
return (BigInt(n) * recFactorial(n - 1));
}

void main(string[] args) {
if (args.length != 2)
writeln("Factorial requires a number");
else
try {
writeln(recFactorial(std.conv.to!int(args[1])));
} catch {
writeln("Error");
}
}



Thanks a lot,