lang: New function engine
This mega patch primarily introduces a new function engine. The main reasons for this new engine are: 1) Massively improved performance with lock-contended graphs. Certain large function graphs could have very high lock-contention which turned out to be much slower than I would have liked. This new algorithm happens to be basically lock-free, so that's another helpful improvement. 2) Glitch-free function graphs. The function graphs could "glitch" (an FRP term) which could be undesirable in theory. In practice this was never really an issue, and I've not explicitly guaranteed that the new graphs are provably glitch-free, but in practice things are a lot more consistent. 3) Simpler graph shape. The new graphs don't require the private channels. This makes understanding the graphs a lot easier. 4) Branched graphs only run half. Previously we would run two pure side of an if statement, and while this was mostly meant as an early experiment, it stayed in for far too long and now was the right time to remove this. This also means our graphs are much smaller and more efficient too. Note that this changed the function API slightly. Everything has been ported. It's possible that we introduce a new API in the future, but it is unexpected to cause removal of the two current APIs. In addition, we finally split out the "schedule" aspect from world.schedule(). The "pick me" aspects now happen in a separate resource, rather than as a yucky side-effect in the function. This also lets us more precisely choose when we're scheduled, and we can observe without being chosen too. As usual many thanks to Sam for helping through some of the algorithmic graph shape issues!
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@@ -177,66 +177,69 @@ func (obj *FooFunc) Init(init *interfaces.Init) error {
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}
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```
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### Call
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Call is run when you want to return a new value from the function. It takes the
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input arguments to the function.
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#### Example
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```golang
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func (obj *FooFunc) Call(ctx context.Context, args []types.Value) (types.Value, error) {
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return &types.StrValue{ // Our type system "str" (string) value.
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V: strconv.FormatInt(args[0].Int(), 10), // a golang string
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}, nil
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}
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```
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### Stream
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```golang
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Stream(context.Context) error
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```
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`Stream` is where the real _work_ is done. This method is started by the
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language function engine. It will run this function while simultaneously sending
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it values on the `Input` channel. It will only send a complete set of input
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values. You should send a value to the output channel when you have decided that
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one should be produced. Make sure to only use input values of the expected type
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as declared in the `Info` struct, and send values of the similarly declared
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appropriate return type. Failure to do so will may result in a panic and
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sadness. You must shutdown if the input context cancels. You must close the
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`Output` channel if you are done generating new values and/or when you shutdown.
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`Stream` is where any evented work is done. This method is started by the
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function engine. It will run this function once. It should call the
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`obj.init.Event()` method when it believes the function engine should run
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`Call()` again.
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Implementing this is not required if you don't have events.
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If the `ctx` closes, you must shutdown as soon as possible.
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#### Example
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```golang
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// Stream returns the single value that was generated and then closes.
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// Stream starts a mainloop and runs Event when it's time to Call() again.
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func (obj *FooFunc) Stream(ctx context.Context) error {
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defer close(obj.init.Output) // the sender closes
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var result string
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ticker := time.NewTicker(time.Duration(1) * time.Second)
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defer ticker.Stop()
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// streams must generate an initial event on startup
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// even though ticker will send one, we want to be faster to first event
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startChan := make(chan struct{}) // start signal
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close(startChan) // kick it off!
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for {
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select {
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case input, ok := <-obj.init.Input:
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if !ok {
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return nil // can't output any more
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}
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case <-startChan:
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startChan = nil // disable
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ix := input.Struct()["a"].Int()
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if ix < 0 {
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return fmt.Errorf("we can't deal with negatives")
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}
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result = fmt.Sprintf("the input is: %d", ix)
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case <-ticker.C: // received the timer event
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// pass
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case <-ctx.Done():
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return nil
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}
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select {
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case obj.init.Output <- &types.StrValue{
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V: result,
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}:
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case <-ctx.Done():
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return nil
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if err := obj.init.Event(ctx); err != nil {
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return err
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}
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}
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}
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```
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As you can see, we read our inputs from the `input` channel, and write to the
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`output` channel. Our code is careful to never block or deadlock, and can always
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exit if a close signal is requested. It also cleans up after itself by closing
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the `output` channel when it is done using it. This is done easily with `defer`.
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If it notices that the `input` channel closes, then it knows that no more input
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values are coming and it can consider shutting down early.
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## Further considerations
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There is some additional information that any function author will need to know.
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