UP | HOME

4.2 - Variations on a Scheme — Lazy Evaluation

Now that we have an evaluator expressed as a Lisp program, we can experiment with alternative choices in language design simply by modifying the evaluator.

Now that we're building our own scheme, we can try out alternate ways of implementing underlying language features, like changing order of evaluation, or how variables are bound.

Normal Order and Applicative Order

Scheme is an applicative-order language, namely, that all the arguments to Scheme procedures are evaluated when the procedure is applied. In contrast, normal-order languages delay evaluation of procedure arguments until the actual argument values are needed. Delaying evaluation of procedure arguments until the last possible moment (e.g., until they are required by a primitive operation) is called lazy evaluation.

From 1.1.5:

This alternative “fully expand and then reduce” evaluation method is known as normal-order evaluation, in contrast to the “evaluate the arguments and then apply” method that the interpreter actually uses, which is called applicative-order evaluation.

Exploiting lazy evaluation: Unless

(define (unless condition usual-value exceptional-value)
  (if condition exceptional-value usual-value))

One can do useful computation, combining elements to form data structures and operating on the resulting data structures, even if the values of the elements are not known.

Exercise 4.25

Suppose that (in ordinary applicative-order Scheme) we define unless as shown above and then define factorial in terms of unless as

(define (factorial n)
  (unless (= n 1)
          (* n (factorial (- n 1)))
          1))

What happens if we attempt to evaluate (factorial 5)? Will our definitions work in a normal-order language?


Evaluating this with applicative-order, attempting to evaluate (factorial 5) would recurse indefinitely, as it continues to evaluate the recursion before reaching the terminating clause.

With normal-order, the recursion wouldn't be evaluated unless (= n 1), so the call should terminate successfully.

Exercise 4.26

Ben Bitdiddle and Alyssa P. Hacker disagree over the importance of lazy evaluation for implementing things such as unless. Ben points out that it's possible to implement unless in applicative order as a special form. Alyssa counters that, if one did that, unless would be merely syntax, not a procedure that could be used in conjunction with higher-order procedures. Fill in the details on both sides of the argument. Show how to implement unless as a derived expression (like cond or let), and give an example of a situation where it might be useful to have unless available as a procedure, rather than as a special form.


A situation where it could be useful to have unless available as a procedure would be if there was some need to pass it as an argument to some other method to parameterize flow control in a higher-order procedure.

An Interpreter with Lazy Evaluation

Modifying the evaluator

Eval

(define (eval exp env)
  (cond ((self-evaluating? exp) 
         exp)
        ((variable? exp) 
         (lookup-variable-value exp env))
        ((quoted? exp) 
         (text-of-quotation exp))
        ((assignment? exp) 
         (eval-assignment exp env))
        ((definition? exp) 
         (eval-definition exp env))
        ((if? exp) 
         (eval-if exp env))
        ((lambda? exp)
         (make-procedure 
          (lambda-parameters exp)
          (lambda-body exp)
          env))
        ((begin? exp)
         (eval-sequence 
          (begin-actions exp) 
          env))
        ((cond? exp) 
         (eval (cond->if exp) env))
        ((application? exp)
         (apply (actual-value (operator exp) env)
                (operands exp)
                env))
        (else
         (error "Unknown expression 
                 type: EVAL" exp))))

Apply

(define (actual-value exp env)
       (force-it (eval exp env)))
(define (apply procedure arguments env)
       (cond ((primitive-procedure? procedure)
              (apply-primitive-procedure
               procedure
               (list-of-arg-values arguments env)))  ; changed
             ((compound-procedure? procedure)
              (eval-sequence
               (procedure-body procedure)
               (extend-environment
                (procedure-parameters procedure)
                (list-of-delayed-args arguments env) ; changed
                (procedure-environment procedure))))
             (else
              (error
               "Unknown procedure type -- APPLY" procedure))))

Procedure Arguments

(define (list-of-arg-values exps env)
  (if (no-operands? exps)
      '()
      (cons (actual-value (first-operand exps) env)
            (list-of-arg-values (rest-operands exps)
                                env))))

(define (list-of-delayed-args exps env)
  (if (no-operands? exps)
      '()
      (cons (delay-it (first-operand exps) env)
            (list-of-delayed-args (rest-operands exps)
                                  env))))

Conditionals

(define (eval-if exp env)
  (if (true? (actual-value (if-predicate exp) env))
      (eval (if-consequent exp) env)
      (eval (if-alternative exp) env)))

driver-loop

(define input-prompt ";;; L-Eval input:")
(define output-prompt ";;; L-Eval value:")

(define (driver-loop)
  (prompt-for-input input-prompt)
  (let ((input (read)))
    (let ((output
           (actual-value input the-global-environment)))
      (announce-output output-prompt)
      (user-print output)))
  (driver-loop))

Representing thunks

Essentially, a delayed object plus an environment to evaluate it in.

Memoization is achieved in force-it by changing the tag from thunk to evaluated-thunk the first time it is forced, saving the value, and discarding the environment. Subsequent calls to force-it will see the new tag, and simply return the stored value.

(define (force-it obj)
  (if (thunk? obj)
      (actual-value (thunk-exp obj) (thunk-env obj))
      obj))

(define (delay-it exp env)
  (list 'thunk exp env))

(define (thunk? obj)
  (tagged-list? obj 'thunk))

(define (thunk-exp thunk) (cadr thunk))

(define (thunk-env thunk) (caddr thunk))

(define (evaluated-thunk? obj)
  (tagged-list? obj 'evaluated-thunk))

(define (thunk-value evaluated-thunk) (cadr evaluated-thunk))

(define (force-it obj)
  (cond ((thunk? obj)
         (let ((result (actual-value
                        (thunk-exp obj)
                        (thunk-env obj))))
           (set-car! obj 'evaluated-thunk)
           (set-car! (cdr obj) result)  ; replace `exp' with its value
           (set-cdr! (cdr obj) '())     ; forget unneeded `env'
           result))
        ((evaluated-thunk? obj)
         (thunk-value obj))
        (else obj)))

Exercise 4.27

Suppose we type in the following definitions to the lazy evaluator:

(define count 0)

(define (id x)
  (set! count (+ count 1))
  x)

Give the missing values in the following sequence of interactions, and explain your answers.

This exercise demonstrates that the interaction between lazy evaluation and side effects can be very confusing. This is just what you might expect from the discussion in *Note Chapter 3.

(define w (id (id 10)))
  • ;;; L-Eval input:
    count
    ;;; L-Eval value:
    <RESPONSE>
    
    • RESPONSE:: 1

      The outer call to id is evaluated when passed to the primitive define. The inner argument (id 10) is not evaluated at this time.

  • ;;; L-Eval input:
    w
    ;;; L-Eval value:
    <RESPONSE>
    
    • RESPONSE:: 10

      The id of 10 is 10.

  • ;;; L-Eval input:
    count
    ;;; L-Eval value:
    <RESPONSE>
    
    • RESPONSE:: 2

      Evaluating w forces its evaluation, which evaluates (id 10). This increments count again, changing its value to 2.

Exercise 4.28

Eval uses actual-value rather than eval to evaluate the operator before passing it to apply, in order to force the value of the operator. Give an example that demonstrates the need for this forcing.

Exercise 4.29

Exhibit a program that you would expect to run much more slowly without memoization than with memoization. Also, consider the following interaction, where the id procedure is defined as in *Note Exercise 4-27:: and count starts at 0:

(define (square x)
  (* x x))
  • ;;; L-Eval input:
    (square (id 10))
    ;;; L-Eval value:
    <RESPONSE>
    
  •  ;;; L-Eval input:
    count
    ;;; L-Eval value:
    <RESPONSE>
    

    Give the responses both when the evaluator memoizes and when it does not.

Exercise 4.30

Cy D. Fect, a reformed C programmer, is worried that some side effects may never take place, because the lazy evaluator doesn't force the expressions in a sequence. Since the value of an expression in a sequence other than the last one is not used (the expression is there only for its effect, such as assigning to a variable or printing), there can be no subsequent use of this value (e.g., as an argument to a primitive procedure) that will cause it to be forced. Cy thus thinks that when evaluating sequences, we must force all expressions in the sequence except the final one. He proposes to modify eval-sequence from section *Note 4-1-1:: to use actual-value rather than eval:

(define (eval-sequence exps env)
  (cond ((last-exp? exps) (eval (first-exp exps) env))
        (else (actual-value (first-exp exps) env)
              (eval-sequence (rest-exps exps) env))))

a. Ben Bitdiddle thinks Cy is wrong. He shows Cy the for-each procedure described in *Note Exercise 2-23::, which gives an important example of a sequence with side effects:

(define (for-each proc items)
  (if (null? items)
      'done
      (begin (proc (car items))
             (for-each proc (cdr items)))))

He claims that the evaluator in the text (with the original eval-sequence) handles this correctly:

;;; L-Eval input:
(for-each (lambda (x) (newline) (display x))
          (list 57 321 88))
57
321
88
;;; L-Eval value:
done

Explain why Ben is right about the behavior of for-each.

b. Cy agrees that Ben is right about the for-each example, but says that that's not the kind of program he was thinking about when he proposed his change to eval-sequence. He defines the following two procedures in the lazy evaluator:

(define (p1 x)
  (set! x (cons x '(2)))
  x)

(define (p2 x)
  (define (p e)
    e
    x)
  (p (set! x (cons x '(2)))))

What are the values of (p1 1) and (p2 1) with the original eval-sequence? What would the values be with Cy's proposed change to eval-sequence?

c. Cy also points out that changing eval-sequence as he proposes does not affect the behavior of the example in part a. Explain why this is true.

d. How do you think sequences ought to be treated in the lazy evaluator? Do you like Cy's approach, the approach in the text, or some other approach?

Exercise 4.31

The approach taken in this section is somewhat unpleasant, because it makes an incompatible change to Scheme. It might be nicer to implement lazy evaluation as an "upward-compatible extension", that is, so that ordinary Scheme programs will work as before. We can do this by extending the syntax of procedure declarations to let the user control whether or not arguments are to be delayed. While we're at it, we may as well also give the user the choice between delaying with and without memoization. For example, the definition

(define (f a (b lazy) c (d lazy-memo))
  ...)

would define f to be a procedure of four arguments, where the first and third arguments are evaluated when the procedure is called, the second argument is delayed, and the fourth argument is both delayed and memoized. Thus, ordinary procedure definitions will produce the same behavior as ordinary Scheme, while adding the lazy-memo declaration to each parameter of every compound procedure will produce the behavior of the lazy evaluator defined in this section. Design and implement the changes required to produce such an extension to Scheme. You will have to implement new syntax procedures to handle the new syntax for define. You must also arrange for eval or apply to determine when arguments are to be delayed, and to force or delay arguments accordingly, and you must arrange for forcing to memoize or not, as appropriate.

Streams as Lazy Lists

Author: Correl Roush

Created: 2015-01-26 Mon 20:11

Emacs 24.4.2 (Org mode 8.2.10)

Validate