Re: Silicon Valley D Meetup - March 18, 2021 - "Templates in the D Programming Language" by Ali Çehreli

2021-03-21 Thread Jon Degenhardt via Digitalmars-d-announce

On Friday, 19 March 2021 at 17:10:27 UTC, Ali Çehreli wrote:

Jon mentioned how PR 7678 reduced the performance of 
std.regex.matchOnce. After analyzing the code we realized that 
the performance loss must be due to two delegate context 
allocations:


https://github.com/dlang/phobos/pull/7678/files#diff-269abc020de3a951eaaa5b8eca5a0700ba8b298767c7a64f459e74e1531a80aeR825

One delegate is 'matchOnceImp' and the other one is the 
anonymous delegate created on the return expression.


We understood that 'matchOnceImp' could not be a nested 
function because of an otherwise useful rule: the name of the 
nested function alone would *call* that function instead of 
being a symbol for it. That is not the case for a local 
delegate variable, so that's why 'matchOnceImp' exists as a 
delegate variable there.


Then there is the addition of the 'pure' attribute to it. 
Fine...


After tinkering with the code, we realized that the same effect 
can be achieved with a static member function of a static 
struct, which would not allocate any delegate context. I add 
@nogc to the following code to prove that point. The following 
code is even simpler than Jon and I came up with yesterday.


[... Code snippet removed ...]

There: we injected @trusted code inside a @nogc @safe function.

Question to others: Did we understand the reason for the 
convoluted code in that PR fully? Is the above method really a 
better solution?


I submitted PR 7902 (https://github.com/dlang/phobos/pull/7902) 
to address this. I wasn't able to use the version Ali showed in 
the post, but the PR does use what is essentially the same idea 
identified at the D Meetup. It is a performance regression, and 
is a bit more nuanced than would be ideal. Comments and review 
would be appreciated.


--Jon




Re: Silicon Valley D Meetup - March 18, 2021 - "Templates in the D Programming Language" by Ali Çehreli

2021-03-19 Thread Ali Çehreli via Digitalmars-d-announce

On 3/19/21 2:45 AM, data pulverizer wrote:

> I have to say that I got an enormous amount out of it!

Thank you for attending and steering the discussion to interesting 
places. It turned out to be much different from a "beginner-friendly" 
presentation. :)


It was interesting to understand some code by Andrei:


https://gist.github.com/andralex/0d85df38be2d9ffbe89cf1fb51c44213#file-reify-d-L164

It was interesting to realize that the selected line above can be an 
example of a use case for nested templates. Instead of the following 
line where the first template parameter is implicitly the "needle" and 
the rest are the "haystack"


  static assert(staticIndexOf!( byte, byte, short, int, long) ==  0);

we can use nested templates to have more readable code:

  static assert(staticIndexOf!byte.among!(byte, short, int, long) ==  0);

(Assuming 'among' is a nested template inside 'staticIndexOf'.)

> I feel energised for what I learned.

It is too nerdy to say but I could not go to sleep easily due to some 
adrenaline rush! Ha ha! :D


> There was one other person who made a useful comment that
> helped my understanding whose name I don't recall - thank you
> too.

That must be Jon Degenhardt. Jon mentioned how PR 7678 reduced the 
performance of std.regex.matchOnce. After analyzing the code we realized 
that the performance loss must be due to two delegate context allocations:



https://github.com/dlang/phobos/pull/7678/files#diff-269abc020de3a951eaaa5b8eca5a0700ba8b298767c7a64f459e74e1531a80aeR825

One delegate is 'matchOnceImp' and the other one is the anonymous 
delegate created on the return expression.


We understood that 'matchOnceImp' could not be a nested function because 
of an otherwise useful rule: the name of the nested function alone would 
*call* that function instead of being a symbol for it. That is not the 
case for a local delegate variable, so that's why 'matchOnceImp' exists 
as a delegate variable there.


Then there is the addition of the 'pure' attribute to it. Fine...

After tinkering with the code, we realized that the same effect can be 
achieved with a static member function of a static struct, which would 
not allocate any delegate context. I add @nogc to the following code to 
prove that point. The following code is even simpler than Jon and I came 
up with yesterday.


void foo(ref int i) pure @nogc @safe {
  // Another local variable that will be used by the static
  // function of the static struct
  double d = 0.0;

  /* Instead of a lambda variable like this:

 auto bar = () @trusted {
   // ...
 };

 We use a static member function of a static struct:
   */
  static struct S {
static auto bar(ref int j, double e) pure @trusted @nogc {
  // Doing something unsafe inside this trusted function
  *(cast(int*)cast(long*)&j) += 42 + e;

  // Totally unrelated: It is a shame that the 'double'
  // expression on the right-hand side is added to an 'int'
  // on the left-hand side but we know that. :/
}
  }

  // Pass needed variables instead of using them from a delegate
  // context
  return (&S.bar)(i, d);

  /* The following more convoluted method works as well but seems
   * unnecessary:

  alias T = typeof(&S.bar);
  enum attrs = functionAttributes!T | FunctionAttribute.pure_ ;

  return (() @trusted @nogc => (cast(SetFunctionAttributes!(T,
  functionLinkage!T, attrs)) &S.bar))()(i, d);
  */
}

void main() {
  int i = 0;
  foo(i);
  assert(i == 42);
}

There: we injected @trusted code inside a @nogc @safe function.

Question to others: Did we understand the reason for the convoluted code 
in that PR fully? Is the above method really a better solution?


Ali



Re: Silicon Valley D Meetup - March 18, 2021 - "Templates in the D Programming Language" by Ali Çehreli

2021-03-19 Thread data pulverizer via Digitalmars-d-announce

On Wednesday, 17 March 2021 at 21:54:27 UTC, Ali Çehreli wrote:

I will explain templates in a beginner-friendly way.

Although this is announced on Meetup[1] as well, you can 
connect directly at


  
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/2248614462?pwd=VTl4OXNjVHNhUTJibms2NlVFS3lWZz09


March 18, 2021
Thursday
19:00 Pacific Time

Ali

[1] 
https://www.meetup.com/D-Lang-Silicon-Valley/events/kmqcvqyccfbxb/


I turned up to this online meetup and I have to say that I got an 
enormous amount out of it! Conversations like this once a month 
or so a few years ago would have made me a much better programmer 
(and maybe even a different person) now. Ali spent a lot of time 
dissecting code in such an informative, cogent, and enlightening 
way, I'm kicking myself for not getting involved in these kinds 
of meetings before. Even though the scheduled time for me was 
2:00am in the morning, I feel energised for what I learned. It's 
a bit like I was groping around in the semi-darkness and someone 
switched on a light bulb.


Many thanks to Ali for setting this one up!  There was one other 
person who made a useful comment that helped my understanding 
whose name I don't recall - thank you too.




Re: Silicon Valley D Meetup - March 18, 2021 - "Templates in the D Programming Language" by Ali Çehreli

2021-03-18 Thread matheus via Digitalmars-d-announce

On Thursday, 18 March 2021 at 16:12:32 UTC, Ali Çehreli wrote:

Understood.

Mike Parker contacted me about potentially recording this as 
well but unfortunately, there is no structure at all and I 
can't come up with anything that is worth recording in a few 
hours now. Let's skip this occasion and I promise I will put 
some slides and a recording later.


So, this meeting will be more like a chat anchored on templates.

Ali


Ok no problem.

Thanks,

Matheus.




Re: Silicon Valley D Meetup - March 18, 2021 - "Templates in the D Programming Language" by Ali Çehreli

2021-03-18 Thread Ali Çehreli via Digitalmars-d-announce

On 3/18/21 6:34 AM, matheus wrote:

> But another reason that I pointed youtube
> re-transmission, is that at least where I live this service has no
> "buffering" for live streaming, while other services use to be pretty
> bad in this regard.

Understood.

Mike Parker contacted me about potentially recording this as well but 
unfortunately, there is no structure at all and I can't come up with 
anything that is worth recording in a few hours now. Let's skip this 
occasion and I promise I will put some slides and a recording later.


So, this meeting will be more like a chat anchored on templates.

Ali



Re: Silicon Valley D Meetup - March 18, 2021 - "Templates in the D Programming Language" by Ali Çehreli

2021-03-18 Thread Imperatorn via Digitalmars-d-announce

On Thursday, 18 March 2021 at 10:29:20 UTC, Ali Çehreli wrote:

On 3/17/21 8:07 PM, matheus wrote:

> Is there a way to have a Youtube re-transmission live too? -
> Unfortunately I can't access this site, and I am interested
in this talk.
>
> Matheus.

This will be as informal as meetups get: There aren't even 
slides (yet?). :) Would jitsi work for you? If so, we may 
decide to move over there and I would post the meeting link and 
the password here at 18:55 Pacific Time, as Iain does for 
BeerConf.


Ali


I would also be interested in some recorded event since I saw now 
it starts 3am local time for me 😭


Re: Silicon Valley D Meetup - March 18, 2021 - "Templates in the D Programming Language" by Ali Çehreli

2021-03-18 Thread matheus via Digitalmars-d-announce

On Thursday, 18 March 2021 at 10:29:20 UTC, Ali Çehreli wrote:
This will be as informal as meetups get: There aren't even 
slides (yet?). :) Would jitsi work for you? If so, we may 
decide to move over there and I would post the meeting link and 
the password here at 18:55 Pacific Time, as Iain does for 
BeerConf.


Ali


Hi Ali,

Well I never tried it, but if it's possible to watch on a browser 
I definitely can try. But another reason that I pointed youtube 
re-transmission, is that at least where I live this service has 
no "buffering" for live streaming, while other services use to be 
pretty bad in this regard.


Thanks for the support,

Matheus.


Re: Silicon Valley D Meetup - March 18, 2021 - "Templates in the D Programming Language" by Ali Çehreli

2021-03-18 Thread Ali Çehreli via Digitalmars-d-announce

On 3/17/21 8:07 PM, matheus wrote:

> Is there a way to have a Youtube re-transmission live too? -
> Unfortunately I can't access this site, and I am interested in this talk.
>
> Matheus.

This will be as informal as meetups get: There aren't even slides 
(yet?). :) Would jitsi work for you? If so, we may decide to move over 
there and I would post the meeting link and the password here at 18:55 
Pacific Time, as Iain does for BeerConf.


Ali



Re: Silicon Valley D Meetup - March 18, 2021 - "Templates in the D Programming Language" by Ali Çehreli

2021-03-18 Thread Imperatorn via Digitalmars-d-announce

On Wednesday, 17 March 2021 at 21:54:27 UTC, Ali Çehreli wrote:

I will explain templates in a beginner-friendly way.

Although this is announced on Meetup[1] as well, you can 
connect directly at


  
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/2248614462?pwd=VTl4OXNjVHNhUTJibms2NlVFS3lWZz09


March 18, 2021
Thursday
19:00 Pacific Time

Ali

[1] 
https://www.meetup.com/D-Lang-Silicon-Valley/events/kmqcvqyccfbxb/


Nice! I'll try to attend 🍀


Re: Silicon Valley D Meetup - March 18, 2021 - "Templates in the D Programming Language" by Ali Çehreli

2021-03-17 Thread matheus via Digitalmars-d-announce

On Wednesday, 17 March 2021 at 21:54:27 UTC, Ali Çehreli wrote:

I will explain templates in a beginner-friendly way.

Although this is announced on Meetup[1] as well, you can 
connect directly at


  
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/2248614462?pwd=VTl4OXNjVHNhUTJibms2NlVFS3lWZz09


March 18, 2021
Thursday
19:00 Pacific Time

Ali

[1] 
https://www.meetup.com/D-Lang-Silicon-Valley/events/kmqcvqyccfbxb/


Is there a way to have a Youtube re-transmission live too? - 
Unfortunately I can't access this site, and I am interested in 
this talk.


Matheus.


Silicon Valley D Meetup - March 18, 2021 - "Templates in the D Programming Language" by Ali Çehreli

2021-03-17 Thread Ali Çehreli via Digitalmars-d-announce

I will explain templates in a beginner-friendly way.

Although this is announced on Meetup[1] as well, you can connect directly at

  https://us04web.zoom.us/j/2248614462?pwd=VTl4OXNjVHNhUTJibms2NlVFS3lWZz09

March 18, 2021
Thursday
19:00 Pacific Time

Ali

[1] https://www.meetup.com/D-Lang-Silicon-Valley/events/kmqcvqyccfbxb/