A vault is a map from keys to values, but the keys are parameterized by the type they return. This allows one to retrieves values from the vault that have any value without specializing the type of things the vault stores. How this works behind the scenes is quite interesting, but basically the keys are what store the values in a sense- they store an IO action of type IO () that stores a value in an IORef when it is run. The key keeps a unique value indicating to the vault which IO action to run, and the IORef that is updated. The is possible through the "scary action at a distance" described here: http://apfelmus.nfshost.com/blog/2011/09/04-vault.html.
I think this may be a good choice to implement a modular evolutionary algorithm framework, since it lets individual components (genetic operators for example) set and retrieve configuration information without having to add their desired configuration to the type of the configuration structure (which otherwise seems inevitable).
No comments:
Post a Comment