when.pl -- Conditional coroutining

This library implements the when/2 constraint, delaying a goal until its arguments are sufficiently instantiated. For example, the following delayes the execution of =:=/2 until the expression is instantiated.

    ...
    when(ground(Expr), 0 =:= Expr),

author

- Tom Schrijvers (initial implementation)

- Jan Wielemaker

 when(+Condition, :Goal)

Execute Goal when Condition is satisfied. I.e., Goal is executed as by call/1 if Condition is true when when/2 is called. Otherwise Goal is delayed until Condition becomes true. Condition is one of the following:

• nonvar(X)
• ground(X)
• ?=(X,Y)
• (Cond1,Cond2)
• (Cond2;Cond2)

For example (note the order a and b are written):

?- when(nonvar(X), writeln(a)), writeln(b), X = x.
b
a
X = x

 $eval_when_condition(+Condition, -Optimised)[private]

C-building block defined in pl-attvar.c. It pre-processes the when-condition, checks it for errors (instantiation errors, domain-errors and cyclic terms) and simplifies it. Notably, it removes already satisfied conditions from Condition, unifying Optimised to true if there is no need to suspend. Nested disjunctions are reported as or(List).

 trigger_ground(@Term, :Goal)[private]

Trigger Goal when Term becomes ground. The current implementation uses nonground/2, waiting for an arbitrary variable and re-check Term when this variable is bound. Previous version used term_variables and suspended on a term constructed from these variables. It is clear that either approach performs better on certain types of terms. The term_variables/2 based approach wins on large terms that are almost ground. Possibly we need a nonground that also returns the number of tests performed and switch to the term_variables/2 based approach if this becomes large.

 check_disj(DisjVar, Disj, Goal)[private]

If there is a disjunctive condition, we share a variable between the disjunctions. If the goal is fired due to one of the conditions, the shared variable is bound to (-). Note that this implies that the attributed variable is left in place. The predicate when_goal//1 skips such goals on behalf of copy_term/3.