(***********************************************************************) (* *) (* OCaml *) (* *) (* Damien Doligez, projet Para, INRIA Rocquencourt *) (* *) (* Copyright 1997 Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et *) (* en Automatique. All rights reserved. This file is distributed *) (* under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License, with *) (* the special exception on linking described in file ../LICENSE. *) (* *) (***********************************************************************) (** Deferred computations. *) type 'a t = 'a lazy_t;; (** A value of type ['a Lazy.t] is a deferred computation, called a suspension, that has a result of type ['a]. The special expression syntax [lazy (expr)] makes a suspension of the computation of [expr], without computing [expr] itself yet. "Forcing" the suspension will then compute [expr] and return its result. Note: [lazy_t] is the built-in type constructor used by the compiler for the [lazy] keyword. You should not use it directly. Always use [Lazy.t] instead. Note: [Lazy.force] is not thread-safe. If you use this module in a multi-threaded program, you will need to add some locks. Note: if the program is compiled with the [-rectypes] option, ill-founded recursive definitions of the form [let rec x = lazy x] or [let rec x = lazy(lazy(...(lazy x)))] are accepted by the type-checker and lead, when forced, to ill-formed values that trigger infinite loops in the garbage collector and other parts of the run-time system. Without the [-rectypes] option, such ill-founded recursive definitions are rejected by the type-checker. *) exception Undefined;; (* val force : 'a t -> 'a ;; *) external force : 'a t -> 'a = "%lazy_force";; (** [force x] forces the suspension [x] and returns its result. If [x] has already been forced, [Lazy.force x] returns the same value again without recomputing it. If it raised an exception, the same exception is raised again. Raise [Undefined] if the forcing of [x] tries to force [x] itself recursively. *) val force_val : 'a t -> 'a;; (** [force_val x] forces the suspension [x] and returns its result. If [x] has already been forced, [force_val x] returns the same value again without recomputing it. Raise [Undefined] if the forcing of [x] tries to force [x] itself recursively. If the computation of [x] raises an exception, it is unspecified whether [force_val x] raises the same exception or [Undefined]. *) val from_fun : (unit -> 'a) -> 'a t;; (** [from_fun f] is the same as [lazy (f ())] but slightly more efficient. @since 4.00.0 *) val from_val : 'a -> 'a t;; (** [from_val v] returns an already-forced suspension of [v]. This is for special purposes only and should not be confused with [lazy (v)]. @since 4.00.0 *) val is_val : 'a t -> bool;; (** [is_val x] returns [true] if [x] has already been forced and did not raise an exception. @since 4.00.0 *) val lazy_from_fun : (unit -> 'a) -> 'a t [@@ocaml.deprecated "Use Lazy.from_fun instead."];; (** @deprecated synonym for [from_fun]. *) val lazy_from_val : 'a -> 'a t [@@ocaml.deprecated "Use Lazy.from_val instead."];; (** @deprecated synonym for [from_val]. *) val lazy_is_val : 'a t -> bool [@@ocaml.deprecated "Use Lazy.is_val instead."];; (** @deprecated synonym for [is_val]. *)