If anyone are interested, I found a solution for lazy lists. A simplified
version of their construction and access looks like this:
nil <- function() NULL
cons <- function(car, cdr) {
force(car)
force(cdr)
function() list(car = car, cdr = cdr)
}
is_nil <- function(lst) is.null(lst())
car <- function(lst) lst()$car
cdr <- function(lst) lst()$cdr
An invariant is that a list is always a thunk that evaluates to either NULL or
a list tha contains car and cdr where cdr is another list (i.e. a thunk).
Operations on lists can be made lazy by wrapping them in a thunk that returns
an evaluated promise. The laziness comes from wrapping an expression in a
promise and by evaluating this promise we make it behave like the un-wrapped
list would do.
So we can, for example, implement lazy reversal and concatenation like this:
reverse <- function(lst) {
do_reverse <- function(lst) {
result <- nil
while (!is_nil(lst)) {
result <- cons(car(lst), result)
lst <- cdr(lst)
}
result
}
force(lst)
lazy_thunk <- function(lst) {
function() lst()
}
lazy_thunk(do_reverse(lst))
}
cat <- function(l1, l2) {
do_cat <- function(l1, l2) {
rev_l1 <- nil
while (!is_nil(l1)) {
rev_l1 <- cons(car(l1), rev_l1)
l1 <- cdr(l1)
}
result <- l2
while (!is_nil(rev_l1)) {
result <- cons(car(rev_l1), result)
rev_l1 <- cdr(rev_l1)
}
result
}
force(l1)
force(l2)
lazy_thunk <- function(lst) {
function() lst()
}
lazy_thunk(do_cat(l1, l2))
}
As an example of how this laziness works, we can test concatenation.
Concatenating two lists is a fast operation, because we don’t actually evaluate
the concatenation, but when we access the list afterward we pay for both the
concatenation and the access.
vector_to_list <- function(v) {
lst <- nil
for (x in v) lst <- cons(x, lst)
reverse(lst)
}
l1 <- vector_to_list(1:10000)
l2 <- vector_to_list(1:10000)
library(microbenchmark)
microbenchmark(lst <- cat(l1, l2), times = 1) # fast operation
microbenchmark(car(lst), times = 1) # slow operation
microbenchmark(car(lst), times = 1) # faster operation
Of course, such a lazy list implementation is just a slow way of implementing
lists, but it makes it possible to exploit a combination of amortised analysis
and persistent data structures to implement queues
http://www.westpoint.edu/eecs/SiteAssets/SitePages/Faculty%20Publication%20Documents/Okasaki/jfp95queue.pdf
Cheers
On 24 Apr 2017, 16.35 +0200, Thomas Mailund <thomas.mail...@gmail.com>, wrote:
> Hi, I’m playing around with ways of implementing lazy evaluation of
> expressions. In R, function arguments are evaluated as promises but
> expressions are evaluated immediately, so I am trying to wrap expressions in
> thunks—functions with no arguments that evaluate an expression—to get
> something the resembles lazy evaluation of expressions.
>
> As an example, consider this:
>
> lazy <- function(value) {
> function() value
> }
>
> f <- lazy((1:100000)[1])
>
> If we evaluate f we have to create the long vector and then get the first
> element. We delay the evaluation to f so the first time we call f we should
> see a slow operation and if we evaluate it again we should see faster
> evaluations. If you run this benchmark, you will see that this is indeed what
> we get:
>
> library(microbenchmark)
> microbenchmark(f(), times = 1)
> microbenchmark(f(), times = 1)
> microbenchmark(f(), times = 1)
> microbenchmark(f(), times = 1)
>
> Now, I want to use this to implement lazy linked lists. It is not
> particularly important why I want to do this, but if you are interested, it
> is because you can implement persistent queues with amortised constant time
> operations this way, which is what I am experimenting with.
>
> I have this implementation of linked lists:
>
> list_cons <- function(elem, lst)
> structure(list(head = elem, tail = lst), class = "linked_list")
>
> list_nil <- list_cons(NA, NULL)
> empty_list <- function() list_nil
> is_empty.linked_list <- function(x) identical(x, list_nil)
>
>
> You can implement it simpler using NULL as an empty list, but this particular
> implementation lets me use polymorphism to implement different versions of
> data structures — the reasoning is explained in chapter 2 of a book I’m
> working on: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qdnjc0bx4yivl8r/book.pdf?dl=0
>
> Anyway, that list implementation doesn’t evaluate the lists lazily, so I am
> trying to wrap these lists in calls to lazy().
>
> A simple implementation looks like this:
>
>
> lazy_empty_list <- lazy(empty_list())
> lazy_cons <- function(elm, lst) {
> lazy(list_cons(elm, lst()))
> }
>
> Now, this works fine for adding an element to an empty list:
>
> lst <- lazy_cons(2, lazy_empty_list)
> lst()
>
> It also works fine if I add another element to an expression for constructing
> a list:
>
> lst <- lazy_cons(1, lazy_cons(2, lazy_empty_list))
> lst()
>
> I can construct lists as long as I want, as long as I explicitly give the
> lazy_cons() function an expression for the list:
>
> lst <- lazy_cons(1, lazy_cons(2, lazy_cons(3, lazy_empty_list)))
> lst()
>
>
> However, if I save intermediate lists in a variable, it breaks down. This
> code:
>
> lst <- lazy_cons(2, lazy_empty_list)
> lst <- lazy_cons(1, lst)
> lst()
>
> gives me this error:
>
> Error in lst() :
> promise already under evaluation: recursive default argument reference or
> earlier problems?
>
> Now, I am particularly dense today, it being Monday and all, so there is
> likely to be something very obvious I am missing, but I would think that the
> “lit” variable, when passed to lazy_cons(), would be interpreted as a promise
> to be evaluated in the parent environment, so I don’t see why it is
> considered a circular definition of it.
>
> If I force the list to be evaluated, it all works, and the first evaluation
> is more expensive than the following:
>
> lazy_cons <- function(elm, lst) {
> force(lst)
> lazy(list_cons(elm, lst()))
> }
> lst <- lazy_cons(1, lazy_empty_list)
> lst <- lazy_cons(2, lst)
> lst <- lazy_cons(3, lst)
> microbenchmark(lst(), times = 1)
> microbenchmark(lst(), times = 1)
> microbenchmark(lst(), times = 1)
>
> But if I do the exact same thing in a for-loop, it breaks again—this does not
> work and I get the same error as earlier:
>
> lst <- lazy_empty_list()
> for (e in 1:3) {
> lst <- lazy_cons(e, lst)
> }
> microbenchmark(lst(), times = 1)
> microbenchmark(lst(), times = 1)
> microbenchmark(lst(), times = 1)
>
> I really can’t see what the difference is between the loop version and the
> explicitly unwrapping of the loop, but R certainly sees a difference…
>
> I would really love to hear if any of you guys have any insights to what is
> going on here...
>
>
> Cheers
>
> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
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> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
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