cwtsteven / Transparent-Synchronous-Dataflow

Transparent-Synchronous-Dataflow

An Ocaml implementation of Transparent Synchronous Dataflow

Requirements

1. Ocaml 4.05.0 +
2. oasis2opam package
3. In order to run the benchmarks for ReactiveML and JaneStreet Incremental Library, please make sure the following are installed.
   • ReactiveML: http://rml.lri.fr/
   • Inc: incremental package in opam
   • Zelus: http://zelus.di.ens.fr/

Installation

1. To pin and install the TSD package, run make install and follows the instruction.
2. To uninstall, run make uninstall

Compilation

Run ocamlfind ocamlc -package tsd,tsd.ppx -o $TARGET -linkpkg $SOURCE to compile your favourite programs.

Examples and Benchmarks

1. To build all the examples, simply run make examples. The compiled executable can be found in examples/build/$TARGET/$TARGET.
2. To execute the benchmarks, simply run make benchmarks.

Running on utop

1. Run #ppx "sysyf_ext";;
2. Run #require "sysyf";;
3. Run open Sysyf;;
4. Try running let x = [%dfg 1];; and it should work!

The TSD language extension and helper functions

An extensive description of the language and the underlying calculus can be found in the report Transparent Synchronous Dataflow. Here is a quick recap:

• val peek : 'a graph -> 'a : takes a node in a graph, evaluates it, and returns its value
• val root : 'a graph -> 'a graph : returns the dependencies of a cell (if it is not a cell it gives a runtime error)
• val cell : 'a graph -> 'a graph : takes a node in a graph as argument and returns a new cell dependent on the node
• val link : 'a graph -> 'a graph -> unit : takes a cell and a node and makes the node the (new) dependency of the cell (if the first argument is not a cell it gives a runtime error)
• val (<~) : 'a graph -> 'a graph -> unit : alias for link
• val assign : 'a graph -> 'a -> unit : change the value of a cell (runtime error if argument not a cell)
• val (<:=) : 'a graph -> 'a -> unit : alias for assign
• val set : 'a graph -> 'a -> unit : combination of link and assign
• val (<:~) : 'a graph -> 'a -> unit : alias for set
• val init : unit -> unit : deletes the dataflow graph
• val step : unit -> bool : propagates changes until every cell is changed at most once. It returns true if changes were made.

The tag [%dfg t] always returns a node in a graph that corresponds to t. Note that this node is not a cell. For example let x = [%dfg 1] creates a constant graph with node 1. This let f = [%dfg fun x y -> x * y] creates a function from graphs to graphs which can be used as follows:

let ( * ) = lift ( * );;
let f = [%dfg fun x y -> x * y];;
let x = cell [%dfg 1] ;;
let y = cell [%dfg 2] ;;
let m = [%dfg f x y];;

This creates a dataflow graph with two cells, initialised to 1 and 2, connected via multiplication to the node x (which is not a cell).