ocaml/stdlib/weak.mli

78 lines
3.4 KiB
OCaml

(***********************************************************************)
(* *)
(* Objective Caml *)
(* *)
(* 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. *)
(* *)
(***********************************************************************)
(* $Id$ *)
(** Arrays of weak pointers. *)
type 'a t
(** The type of arrays of weak pointers (weak arrays). A weak
pointer is a value that the garbage collector may erase at
any time.
A weak pointer is said to be full if it points to a value,
empty if the value was erased by the GC.*)
val create : int -> 'a t
(** [Weak.create n] returns a new weak array of length [n].
All the pointers are initially empty. Raise [Invalid_argument]
if [n] is negative or greater than {!Sys.max_array_length}[-1].*)
val length : 'a t -> int
(** [Weak.length ar] returns the length (number of elements) of
[ar].*)
val set : 'a t -> int -> 'a option -> unit
(** [Weak.set ar n (Some el)] sets the [n]th cell of [ar] to be a
(full) pointer to [el]; [Weak.set ar n None] sets the [n]th
cell of [ar] to empty.
Raise [Invalid_argument "Weak.set"] if [n] is not in the range
0 to {!Weak.length}[ a - 1].*)
val get : 'a t -> int -> 'a option
(** [Weak.get ar n] returns None if the [n]th cell of [ar] is
empty, [Some x] (where [x] is the value) if it is full.
Raise [Invalid_argument "Weak.get"] if [n] is not in the range
0 to {!Weak.length}[ a - 1].*)
val get_copy : 'a t -> int -> 'a option
(** [Weak.get_copy ar n] returns None if the [n]th cell of [ar] is
empty, [Some x] (where [x] is a (shallow) copy of the value) if
it is full.
In addition to pitfalls with mutable values, the interesting
difference with [get] is that [get_copy] does not prevent
the incremental GC from erasing the value in its current cycle
([get] may delay the erasure to the next GC cycle).
Raise [Invalid_argument "Weak.get"] if [n] is not in the range
0 to {!Weak.length}[ a - 1].*)
val check : 'a t -> int -> bool
(** [Weak.check ar n] returns [true] if the [n]th cell of [ar] is
full, [false] if it is empty. Note that even if [Weak.check ar n]
returns [true], a subsequent {!Weak.get}[ ar n] can return [None].*)
val fill : 'a t -> int -> int -> 'a option -> unit
(** [Weak.fill ar ofs len el] sets to [el] all pointers of [ar] from
[ofs] to [ofs + len - 1]. Raise [Invalid_argument "Weak.fill"]
if [ofs] and [len] do not designate a valid subarray of [a].*)
val blit : 'a t -> int -> 'a t -> int -> int -> unit
(** [Weak.blit ar1 off1 ar2 off2 len] copies [len] weak pointers
from [ar1] (starting at [off1]) to [ar2] (starting at [off2]).
It works correctly even if [ar1] and [ar2] are the same.
Raise [Invalid_argument "Weak.blit"] if [off1] and [len] do
not designate a valid subarray of [ar1], or if [off2] and [len]
do not designate a valid subarray of [ar2].*)