Another space leak question

[Srineet]

Thanks! Indeed some random numbers might not get always evaluated, the way
the code is in the first version. Lemme just put it here,

The function that steps one helicopter:
> stepHC    :: Int -> Helicopter -> Helicopter

> -- handling the case of a helicopter going left to right
> stepHC r (HC (Just x, y) DRight) | x >= (hcRight - hcBmpWd)  = HC
(Nothing, y) DRight
>                                                    | otherwise    =  HC
(Just (x+hcStep), y) DRight
> stepHC r (HC (Nothing, y) DRight) | r > 1 = HC (Nothing, y) DRight
>                                                        | otherwise = HC
(Just hcLeft, y) DRight

> -- now a helicopter going right to left
> stepHC r (HC (Just x, y) DLeft)   |  x <= (hcLeft + hcStep)   = HC
(Nothing, y) DLeft
>                                                    | otherwise = HC (Just
(x - hcStep), y) DLeft
> stepHC r (HC (Nothing, y) DLeft)  |  r > 1    =  HC (Nothing, y) DLeft
>                                                       | otherwise = HC
(Just (hcRight - hcBmpWd),y) DLeft
------------------------------------------
The function that steps all my helicopters:

> stepHCs   ::  PTState -> PTState
> stepHCs s = let
>   (rs, ns)    = stGetRandoms numHelicopters s
>   fns = map stepHC rs
>   hcs = zipWith ($) fns (stGetHCs ns)
---------------------------------------------

I have already given "stGetRandoms". It is:
> stGetRandom   :: PTState -> (Int, PTState)
> stGetRandom (bmps, r:rs, hcs) = (r, (bmps, rs, hcs))

Now, as we see, the random number doesn't always get evaluated. So I tried
two things:
1. Putting "seq" in stGetRandoms, so that "r" will be evaluated. Didn't help
:(
2. In stepHC above, putting "r > 0 && " in every guard (hoping "r" will
always get evaluated). But even this doesn't remove the space leak.

I still think, its something to do with this list of random numbers, since
removing it out of the PTSTate tuple and passing it as a parameter, has
removed the space leak. I wuld like to get to the bottom of this, just so
that I understand why there's a leak, and in general increase my Haskell
knowledge. Please help.

Thanks. Bye.

- Srineet.

P.S. I've only got HOOD, and yes, when I try and observe the state, the
random list component, is a huge infinite list with many unevaluated numbers
first, and some evaluated numbers sprinkled here and there. But why is this
happening?



----- Original Message -----
From: "Alastair David Reid" <reid@cs.utah.edu>
To: "Srineet" <srineet@email.com>
Cc: <haskell-cafe@haskell.org>; <kahl@heraklit.informatik.unibw-muenchen.de>
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2001 12:13 AM
Subject: Re: Another space leak question


>
> [Metacomment: the only way to really answer your question is to use
> one of the debugging tools mentioned previously in the space leak
> threads.  For large programs, anything else is just a list of
> guesses.]
>
> I think the space leak lies in the code you did not show us.
>
> What does step look like?
> If it looks like this:
>
>   step (a,b,c) = (a',b',c') where ...
>
> then the space leak is _not_ caused by bundling up the state - you
> could move the take and drop inside the definition of step (which
> would make your code a bit cleaner and more modular too.)
>
> How do you access the list of helicopters inside step?
> It could be that one of the random numbers you're asking for isn't being
> evaluated and you're being left with a thunk like this:
>
>   head randoms
>
> where, in the first version of your code, randoms is an infinite list
> and, in the second version, it is a small, finite list.
>
> Maybe all you need to do is change the definition of step to:
>
>   step (a,b,c) = c' `seq` (a',b',c') where ...
>
>
> Finally, if this doesn't work (and debugging tools fail you) my
> experience of arcade games in Haskell is that nearly all the state is
> used to generate an image at each step.  If your problem is a
> strictness bug, you might be able to find it just by thinking about
> what parts of the state are _not_ used to generate the image.
>
> --
> Alastair Reid        reid@cs.utah.edu        http://www.cs.utah.edu/~reid/
>