Send Beginners mailing list submissions to
        beginners@haskell.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
        http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/beginners
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
        beginners-requ...@haskell.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
        beginners-ow...@haskell.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Beginners digest..."


Today's Topics:

   1. Re:  State in IO monad (Dmitriy Matrosov)
   2. Re:  State in IO monad (c...@coot.me)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2020 18:07:42 +0300
From: Dmitriy Matrosov <sgf....@gmail.com>
To: beginners@haskell.org
Subject: Re: [Haskell-beginners] State in IO monad
Message-ID: <52c41084-21d0-af05-44b5-5a15fa28b...@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed


On 11/14/20 5:36 PM, c...@coot.me wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> 
> First you should ask yourself if you need concurrent access to that state.  
> If not then you can thread this state as argument, e.g.

No, for the time being i don't need concurrent access. Just make it work.

> ```
> data State = State
> 
> someAction :: State -> IO a
> someOtherAction :: State -> IO b
> ```
> This functions compose perfectly well, if you need to update the state then 
> each action should also return it:
> 
> ```
> someAction :: State -> IO (State, a)
> someOtherAction :: State -> IO (State, b)
> ```

Thanks, but the problem is how this library works. [Here][1] is example
provided by library author.

So, essentially, first i need to initialize library with

     telnetInit :: [OptionSpec] -> [Flag] -> EventHandler -> IO Telnet

and pass it callback function with type

     type EventHandler = TelnetPtr -> Event -> IO ()

and this callback function will be called upon each telnet event, including
data reception. But because each time the same function is called and it is in
IO monad, i don't see a way how to pass something (i.e. state) from one call
to the second. In fact, i don't even see a way how to save result of the
single call to use later in the rest of the program. Unless i use global
state in IO (using 'IORef' or 'MVar' (didn't tried yet)).

Alternatively, (looking at [example][1]) i may parse received data after
'recv' call before telling telnet library that data is received with 
'telnetRecv',
but then callback function passed to 'telnetInit' does not needed at all
(well, at least in my simple case). And this looks a little strange: why do i
ever need this callback function, if i can't parse data there and save it
for use in the rest of the program?

[1]: https://git.sr.ht/~jack/libtelnet-haskell/tree/master/example/Main.hs

> You still can compose those.  This is `StateT` monad transformer in disguise 
> (from `transformers` / `stm` package combo), but I personally prefer to pass 
> arguments explicitly and only use `StateT` or `RederT` monad if they bring 
> more clarity.
> 
> If you need concurrent access from different threads, then I'd use `MVar` or 
> `stm` for holding a mutable variable, rather than `IORef` (which are useful 
> if the code needs to be as fast as possible, but they present less 
> guarantees).
> 
> If you go with mutable cell to hold the state, then there's no need to create 
> it using `unsafePerformIO`, you can directly create it in `main :: IO ()` and 
> pass it around as an argument. `unsafePerformIO` is really rarely needed and 
> most of the time there are well established patterns to avoid using it.
> 
> Best regards,
> Marcin Szamotulski
> 
> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
> 
> On Saturday, November 14th, 2020 at 14:53, Dmitriy Matrosov 
> <sgf....@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hi.
>>
> 
>> I want to use [telnet library][1] to run some
>>
> 
>> commands on cisco switches and then parse output.
>>
> 
>> Thus, first i need to login (enter username and
>>
> 
>> password, etc) and then run commands and collect
>>
> 
>> output. As far as i understand that library API,
>>
> 
>> all of output parsing should be done in
>>
> 
>> EventHandler
>>
> 
>> of type
>>
> 
>> TelnetPtr -> Event -> IO ()
>>
> 
>> But, these (mine) operations require some state
>>
> 
>> (to track where am i now (entered username,
>>
> 
>> entered password, etc) and to collect output). But
>>
> 
>> the monad of this event handler is IO, so i can't
>>
> 
>> see any simple way of adding state to it apart
>>
> 
>> from ['unsafePerfromIO' trick][2], like
>>
> 
>> telnetRef :: IORef TelnetRef
>>
> 
>> {-# NOINLINE telnetRef #-}
>>
> 
>> telnetRef = unsafePerformIO $ newIORef (TelnetRef undefined Unauth M.empty)
>>
> 
>> ('undefined' is 'Telnet' pointer, which is
>>
> 
>> returned by 'telnetInit' and will be initialized
>>
> 
>> later..)
>>
> 
>> Is there a better a way to do this?
>>
> 
>> Thanks.
>>
> 
>> [1]: https://hackage.haskell.org/package/libtelnet
>>
> 
>> [2]: https://wiki.haskell.org/Top_level_mutable_state
>>
> 
>> Beginners mailing list
>>
> 
>> Beginners@haskell.org
>>
> 
>> http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/beginners
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Beginners mailing list
>> Beginners@haskell.org
>> http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/beginners



------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2020 16:30:36 +0000
From: c...@coot.me
To: The Haskell-Beginners Mailing List - Discussion of primarily
        beginner-level topics related to Haskell <beginners@haskell.org>
Subject: Re: [Haskell-beginners] State in IO monad
Message-ID:
        
<255NJIWDfZJaLLNfspuBJcc7-Y1kzx6p0og_w0yvIVp86lJOJlN6UP9aN09I3MAfHx3aHiY_2G5MGBlhDbVFrWd-Z_zFsAr8qeBzRXedmRA=@coot.me>
        
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

You are right, with the provided interface, the only way is to preserve the 
state using a mutable variable.  In this case you could do something like this:

```
main :: IO ()
main = do
    var <- newMVar (undefined :: State) -- the initial state
    serve HostAny "4000" (\(s, _) -> handle var s)
  where
    handle var s = do ...
```

I don't know how the telnet library works in the background, but it's likely 
that it runs a single event loop, so using `IORef` if you don't have any other 
`IORef`s around might be ok (check the the haddocs of `atomicModifyIORef`).

Best regards,
Marcin Szamotulski

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

On Sunday, November 15th, 2020 at 16:07, Dmitriy Matrosov <sgf....@gmail.com> 
wrote:

> On 11/14/20 5:36 PM, c...@coot.me wrote:
> 

> > Hi,
> > 

> > First you should ask yourself if you need concurrent access to that state. 
> > If not then you can thread this state as argument, e.g.
> 

> No, for the time being i don't need concurrent access. Just make it work.
> 

> >     data State = State
> >     

> >     someAction :: State -> IO a
> >     someOtherAction :: State -> IO b
> >     

> > 

> > This functions compose perfectly well, if you need to update the state then 
> > each action should also return it:
> > 

> >     someAction :: State -> IO (State, a)
> >     someOtherAction :: State -> IO (State, b)
> >     

> 

> Thanks, but the problem is how this library works. Here is example
> 

> provided by library author.
> 

> So, essentially, first i need to initialize library with
> 

> telnetInit :: [OptionSpec] -> [Flag] -> EventHandler -> IO Telnet
> 

> and pass it callback function with type
> 

> type EventHandler = TelnetPtr -> Event -> IO ()
> 

> and this callback function will be called upon each telnet event, including
> 

> data reception. But because each time the same function is called and it is in
> 

> IO monad, i don't see a way how to pass something (i.e. state) from one call
> 

> to the second. In fact, i don't even see a way how to save result of the
> 

> single call to use later in the rest of the program. Unless i use global
> 

> state in IO (using 'IORef' or 'MVar' (didn't tried yet)).
> 

> Alternatively, (looking at example) i may parse received data after
> 

> 'recv' call before telling telnet library that data is received with 
> 'telnetRecv',
> 

> but then callback function passed to 'telnetInit' does not needed at all
> 

> (well, at least in my simple case). And this looks a little strange: why do i
> 

> ever need this callback function, if i can't parse data there and save it
> 

> for use in the rest of the program?
> 

> 1: https://git.sr.ht/~jack/libtelnet-haskell/tree/master/example/Main.hs
> 

> > You still can compose those. This is `StateT` monad transformer in disguise 
> > (from `transformers` / `stm` package combo), but I personally prefer to 
> > pass arguments explicitly and only use `StateT` or `RederT` monad if they 
> > bring more clarity.
> > 

> > If you need concurrent access from different threads, then I'd use `MVar` 
> > or `stm` for holding a mutable variable, rather than `IORef` (which are 
> > useful if the code needs to be as fast as possible, but they present less 
> > guarantees).
> > 

> > If you go with mutable cell to hold the state, then there's no need to 
> > create it using `unsafePerformIO`, you can directly create it in `main :: 
> > IO ()` and pass it around as an argument. `unsafePerformIO` is really 
> > rarely needed and most of the time there are well established patterns to 
> > avoid using it.
> > 

> > Best regards,
> > 

> > Marcin Szamotulski
> > 

> > ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
> > 

> > On Saturday, November 14th, 2020 at 14:53, Dmitriy Matrosov 
> > sgf....@gmail.com wrote:
> > 

> > > Hi.
> > 

> > > I want to use telnet library to run some
> > 

> > > commands on cisco switches and then parse output.
> > 

> > > Thus, first i need to login (enter username and
> > 

> > > password, etc) and then run commands and collect
> > 

> > > output. As far as i understand that library API,
> > 

> > > all of output parsing should be done in
> > 

> > > EventHandler
> > 

> > > of type
> > 

> > > TelnetPtr -> Event -> IO ()
> > 

> > > But, these (mine) operations require some state
> > 

> > > (to track where am i now (entered username,
> > 

> > > entered password, etc) and to collect output). But
> > 

> > > the monad of this event handler is IO, so i can't
> > 

> > > see any simple way of adding state to it apart
> > 

> > > from 'unsafePerfromIO' trick, like
> > 

> > > telnetRef :: IORef TelnetRef
> > 

> > > {-# NOINLINE telnetRef #-}
> > 

> > > telnetRef = unsafePerformIO $ newIORef (TelnetRef undefined Unauth 
> > > M.empty)
> > 

> > > ('undefined' is 'Telnet' pointer, which is
> > 

> > > returned by 'telnetInit' and will be initialized
> > 

> > > later..)
> > 

> > > Is there a better a way to do this?
> > 

> > > Thanks.
> > 

> > > Beginners mailing list
> > 

> > > Beginners@haskell.org
> > 

> > > http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/beginners
> > > 

> > > Beginners mailing list
> > > 

> > > Beginners@haskell.org
> > > 

> > > http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/beginners
> 

> Beginners mailing list
> 

> Beginners@haskell.org
> 

> http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/beginners
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 509 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: 
<http://mail.haskell.org/pipermail/beginners/attachments/20201115/27f4da4c/attachment-0001.sig>

------------------------------

Subject: Digest Footer

_______________________________________________
Beginners mailing list
Beginners@haskell.org
http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/beginners


------------------------------

End of Beginners Digest, Vol 148, Issue 2
*****************************************

Reply via email to