Robust-first Computing Wiki

To be copied here

We can override some properties of an element, such as its color, when we were programming C++ to create elements on the MFM. How can we do the same thing in ULAM? I want to create two types of Res with different colors. (This is a simplification of the Aura and Medicine element. Later I will convert them to real Aura and Medicine)

A: 28-May-2015 01:04:05PM-0600 There was a getColor() special function to allow the ULAM programmer to determine atom colors at runtime, but that mechanism is currently broken by the in-progress Site redesign efforts. Hope for getColor or some replacement to reappear within a week!

Sometimes we want to get other Atom's data member. In the 'Aura and Medicine' game, a Medicine atom will compare the density that it observed with the density stored in another Aura atom. How can we access the data member of other atoms? I tried to write like this but got compile errors:

Atom a = ew[slot];
Int yourDensity = a.density;

A: 29-May-2015 04:37:12AM-0600: Probably the most straightforward is to use an 'is' expression combined with a cast:

Atom a = ew[index];
if (a is Foo) {       
  Foo f = (Foo) a;    // Note that f is a copy of a!
  Int n = f.fooField;
  // ..use n for something..
} // else a is not a Foo

If you want to modify fields of an atom this way, you need to write the changes back:

element Foo {
  EventWindow ew;
  Int(7) fooField;

  Void behave() {
    if (ew[1] is Foo) {
      Foo f = (Foo) ew[1];  // Makes a copy
      ++f.fooField;         // Modifies the copy
      ew[1] = f;            // Updates eventwindow
    }
  }
}

I have a problem using WindowServices with a for loop. I printed out the value of ws.next(). It is '-1'. I think that's why the code inside the for loop is not performed. Please tell me again how to pick a nearby neighbor in my EventWindow so that I can read or modify its fields.

   
WindowServises ws;
ws.reset(0,4);
Signal s;
Int st=au.getType((Atom) s);
if(ws.scan(st)){
  density=ws.getHits(0);
  if(density>0){
    du.print((Int) ws.next());
    for (Int idx = ws.next(); idx >= 0; idx = ws.next()) {
       Atom a = ew[idx];
       if (a is Signal) {
          //compare your density with mine
       }
    }
}    

A: 29-May-2015 06:24:01PM-0600: The WindowServices next() method returns -1 when there are no more event window indices to scan in your chosen range.. but that's a detail. The main issue here is: You don't want to use both a ws.scan() call and a for loop with ws.next, you want one or the other. If you use scan, then you use getHits to see if anything matched, and getPick to get a randomly-chosen match. That code has got other issues too (e.g., WindowServices).

Thank you! I fixed the code. This time I use the for loop on ws.next(). I wanted to use ws.scan(someType) but then if I used ws.getPick(0) to find a match, how would I know its actual index in the event window?

WindowServices ws;
Random rdm;
ws.reset(1,4);
Request r;
Int rt=au.getType((Atom) r);
for(Int idx=ws.next();idx>=0;idx=ws.next()){
  Atom a= ew[idx];
  if(a is Request){
    Request you=(Request) a;
    if(density>you.density){
      if(rdm.oneIn(2)){
        ew.swap(0,idx);
      }
    }
  }
}

A: 29-May-2015 11:08:39PM-0600: As long as the corresponding ws.getHits returns greater than zero, then return value of ws.getPick is the event window index! You can do stuff like:

WindowServices ws;
ws.reset(1,4);
Request r;
Int rt=au.getType((Atom) r);
if (ws.scan(rt)) {            // Any matches for rt?
  Atom a = ew[ws.getPick(0)]; // Yes! Access chosen slot
  if(a is Request){           // This 'if' will always succeed..
    r = (Request) a;
    .. use r.density etc ..
  }
}

or even this:

WindowServices ws;
ws.reset(1,4);
Request r;
Int rt=au.getType((Atom) r);  // Get type of element Request
if (ws.scan(rt)) {            // Any matches for that?
  r = (Request) ew[ws.getPick(0)]; // Yes! Access slot of chosen one
  .. use r.density etc ..
}

because that particular ws.scan(rt) can only return true if ws.getPick(0) is going to return the event window index of a Request atom. (It's not this easy, though, if you are scanning for multiple things simultaneously.)