Bob Weinand wrote on 03/03/2015 12:08:
Am 03.03.2015 um 12:34 schrieb Rowan Collins <rowan.coll...@gmail.com>:

Niklas Keller wrote on 03/03/2015 10:55:
    Gr, top-posting...


Sorry, was on mobile. ;-)

    However, since the existence of the word "yield" is the only thing
    that
    marks a coroutine now, how about using a variant of that for the final
    value, e.g. "yield final $foo"?


What's the final value? The last "yield"ed value or a return?
"yield final" would mark the final result of the coroutine, as opposed to the 
intermediate values passed out with a normal "yield".


Just to give you some real world example:
If you're using "return", it would look like that:

public function getSession ($sessionId) {
    $result = yield $this->redis->get("session.{$sessionId}")); // We're 
waiting here until redis responded.
    return json_decode($result);
}
My suggestion is simply to change the keyword:

public function getSession ($sessionId) {
    $result = yield $this->redis->get("session.{$sessionId}")); // We're 
waiting here until redis responded.
    yield final json_decode($result);
}


The reasoning being that when you run getSession(42), it *doesn't* return the 
result of json_decode(), it returns a pointer to the coroutine's state, which 
you can resume later.

Actually, I don't think that example makes sense, because JSON gets sent out at 
the first yield, and then sent back in, so the caller would look something like 
this:

$foo = getSession(42);
$json_data = $foo->current();
$foo->send($json_data);
$decoded = $foo->getReturn();

But never mind, I think we both get the idea.

I understand the desire for a "final result", but I don't like reusing the word "return", 
because it's never "returned" as the result of running the function, it's just made available 
through some specific method/syntax.

Regards,
--
Rowan Collins
[IMSoP]
Hey,

We currently already have "return;" (without value) as allowed syntax to 
terminate Generator execution. Thus, the logical consequence is just adding a value to 
that return.

Hm, I didn't realise that. I suppose it makes sense that you'd want a way to do that, but it does make it very hard to see if something's going to behave as a function or a coroutine if they use the same keywords to mean different things.

When we want to *return*, it should be also a real *return". Yes, it is just 
accessible through special syntax (or a method), but it's still *return*ing into the 
calling frame.

Well, so is "yield" - it just leaves the Generator in a state that can be resumed, whereas "return"/"yield final" leaves it in a final, non-resumable state.

Why should the word "return" be unique to methods or functions?

It just doesn't feel like the same thing as a return value to me, for the same reason a generator doesn't feel like the same thing as a function. In "function foo() { return 42; }", "return" means "this is what you'll get when you run foo()"; in "function foo() { return 42; yield; }", what you get when you run foo() is a pointer to the resumable state, and return means "this is what you'll get if you ask the generator/coroutine instance you get by running foo() for its final result".

Regards,
--
Rowan Collins
[IMSoP]

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