Axum Incubation Project Forum

Communicating with C#? Agents dont persist?

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:55:34 Z

Im just full of questions ... (thanks for replying to them btw XP)

Lets say I have a domain ...

domain GraphicsDomain
{
     MatrixOpChannel mm;
     public GraphicsDomain()
     {
          Host<MatrixMultiplication>( "mm" );
          Host<MeshHandler>( "mh" );
          Host<RayTracer( "rt" );

          var cmp = new InprocCommunicationProvider();
          mm = cmp.Connect<MatrixOpChannel>( "mm" );

          var mh = cmp.Connect<MeshChannel>( "mh" );
          var rt = cmp.Connect<RayTracerChannel>( "rt" );

          mh::NewWorld ==> rt::Enviroment;
     }
}

CONSTRUCTORS

public MeshHandler()
{
     NumberOfMeshes ==> GetNumberOfMeshes;
     GetMesh ==> GiveMesh;
     SetMesh ==> AssignMesh;
     AddMesh ==> AppendMesh;
     AddLight ==> AppendLight;
     Clear ==> ClearMeshes;

     TransformWorld ==> TransformEnviroment ==> NewWorld;
}

public RayTracer()
{
     Resolution ==> SetResolution;

     Enviroment ==> RayProducer;
}

And in my C# program I do this

            ICommunicationProvider cp = new InprocCommunicationProvider();

            engine = new GraphicsDomain();

            meshChannel = new GraphicsDomain.MeshChannel(cp, "mh");
            rayChannel = new GraphicsDomain.RayTracerChannel(cp, "rt");

            rayChannel.Resolution.Post(new GraphicsDomain.Pair<int, int> { first = this.display.Allocation.Width, second = this.display.Allocation.Height });
            meshChannel.TransformWorld.Post(new Signal());
            //GraphicsDomain.World w = meshChannel.NewWorld.Receive();
            //rayChannel.Enviroment.Post(w);
            GraphicsDomain.Color[] c = rayChannel.Result.Receive();

This will work but only once and my question is what did I do wrong? Do I need to have the agent constructors do a receive loop so they don't die? As I said, I can get this to work by uncommenting out the commented section. However, in my domain constructor i set it up to forward to that port. I guess there is something I inherently don't understand about Hosting agents and agent lifetimes.

Constructor of external type 'XXXX' can cause side effects

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:09:32 Z

Hi!

I use a C# DLL in my Axum Project and when I compile the two I get the compiler Message
"Constructor of external type 'SimHelper.SimHelp' can cause side effects"   (SimHelper is obviously my DLL Project)

This here is the Axum Part

        public MainAgent()
        {


            SimHelp test = new SimHelp();

            Console.ReadLine();
            PrimaryChannel::Done <-- Signal.Value;
        }

Why does that happen? How can I fix this?

EDIT: I tried to compile the WebFetcher Example and have the Same problem.... ?!
Axum 0.2 VS2008

Thanks!
alexl

Targeted feedback we're looking for...

Mon, 04 May 2009 22:21:28 Z

Want to start playing around with Axum but not sure where to start? Here's a sample of some targeted feedback we're looking for:

- Learning curve: How complex do you find it to do simple things in Axum? Do you think the value it provides is worth the investment in learning and understanding the language?

- Form: Do you think that Axum is better off as a language or would you be just as happy with a library-based solution?

- Interop: How hard was it to consume objects that were created in other .NET languages? Was it easy to place isolation guarantees on these objects? If not, how would you change the process?

- Async pattern: What do you think of asynchronous methods? Do they make the APM pattern easier?

- Legacy: What issues are there with porting legacy applications? Any blockers or things we could do to make it easier?

- Platform fit: How does Axum fit in with the rest of .NET? For graphical applications, did you face any challenges with the UI?

- Scalability: Were you able to easily write applications that scale from cores to the cluster to the cloud? Is the unified model all it's cracked up to be?

- Tools: What kind of tools (compile-time, run-time, post-run) would make you a more productive Axum programmer?

- Love/Hate: What's the one thing about Axum that frustrates you to no end? What's the thing you love most about it?

Remember whether it's a complaint about the way something works or kudos for a feature you love, your feedback will help make or break Axum and ultimately lead to a tool that makes you more productive!

Thanks!

Functions return `read????

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:04:14 Z

Ok I tried to make a network of functions. One returns a schema and another gets that same schema, but compiler says there diffrent types (technicly are) because one is "`read". SOoooo How do I say this type is `read too? Usually I only have to get in inside of a function so i just use "var".

EXAMPLE

function void DoMoreStuff( <schema type> a )
{
     ....
}

function <schema type> DoStuff( int a )
{
     ....
}

private void Start()
{
     var o = new OrderedInteractionPoint<int>();
     o ==> DoStuff ==> DoMoreStuff; // ERROR!!! YOU ANGERED THE COMPILER GODS!!!!
}

Axum for VS2008: Installation fails

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:37:25 Z

Hi,

I tried to install Axum for VS2008 more than one time. The installer is causing a "VS2008 has encountered an error" to appear, which in turn causes the installation to fail and a rollback.

I successfully installed Axum for VS2010 after the one for VS2008 did not work, but I'd like to use Axum more in VS2008 than in VS2010.

How can I get the installer to work?

Axum for Inter Process Communication

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:57:15 Z

Hi

Having tried Axum in version 1.0, i find that the concepts are great. However, I don't think I will ever need to use it in a single process, as there are so many other good approaches how to make concurrency safer and simpler, which are possibly easier to prgram with.

I would be very interested to learn how I can use Axum in a distributed setting, between processes. I feel like in most approaches to IPC, there is a lack of protocol specification. E.g. remoting is great to share objects, but the receiver can call the methods on it in any order. Sockets and all it's abstractions are great but there is need to explicitly serialize stuff.

As I read first about Axum, I thought this would be something like the IPC in Singularity. There are so many great IPC concepts in Singularity that would be very useful to have on a regular .NET basis. Axum brings some of them to a single process.

Are there any steps planned to extend Axum into the Direction of IPC?
Is there a possibility to use Axum in its current form in combination with e.g. remoting?

Regards, Banjobeni

Network Two Arguments to a Two Argument Function??? ... and assorted questions

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:43:22 Z

What I would like to do is be able to send two different arguments to a function that have different types something like this ...

function Vector Multiply( Matrix a, Vector b)
{
    // do mutliplication
}

MatrixInputPort, VectorInputPort ==> Multiply ==> Result;

How what I have tried is to use Combine + change my function to accept Object like so ...

function Vector Multiply( Object[] o )
{
     Matrix a = o[0] as Matrix;
     Vector b = o[1] as Vector;
     // do mutliplication
}

({MatrixInputPort, VectorInputPort} &>- Multiply) ==> Result;

However, It always says that I have to send an IEnumerable or an Array for the left hand argument "{MatrixInputPort...}" of "&>-"? Isn't that why im using the "{" "}". I have also tried to put new Object[] in front of it and that hasn't worked. Combine is nice but i would love some sort of mechanism to make it act more like functional programming. But, even past this when I have a function that does work like ...

function Matrix Multiply( Matrix[] m )
{
     // do mutliplication
}

({MatrixInputPort1, MatrixInputPort2} &>- Multiply) ==> Result;

Works for the Combine but complains about mismatch of operands for ==>. It would be nice to know what the types of each are so I could Figure out what the compiler is trying to do.

One other thing, lets say i have a network like this ...

source ==> work ==> work2 ==> work3

work3 does not return a actual value its just a "void, T". What i would love is if there was an easy way to say to the network HEY i finished sending you data + the network to say "I finished." Now the only way I have thought to do this is to know how many you are sending before hand and send that on some port. Then make work3 ==> counter function that sends a signal to a Done port. Now as far as building this into the language i was thinking something like this ...

source ==> work ==> work2 ==> work3 : Done

Where Done is a built in output port that counts every time something is passed until Done is sent a signal. Then when the number counted is the number processed you reply with a signal. I have no idea if this would work, but I would love it.

Anyway, Wall of text over XP

Axum and Silverlight

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:14:20 Z

Can you use Axum with a Silverlight 3 project?

Axum vs. Multi Threading

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:15:27 Z

What is the difference between multi threading and Axum?

Bill Gates look out!

Whenever i change the mode from Debug to Release or vice versa the Axum application will run from the previous mode .

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:16:06 Z

Hi,
I trying some example in Axum.Whenever i change
the mode from Debug to Release or vice versa the Axum application will run from the previous mode only.And if i go to particular folder and run it will run properly.Problem occurs only when try to run from Visual Studio IDE.This will not happen with other language applications. Anybody knows why this is happening do i need to change any settings?.

Thank you.

dll issue in Axum

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:49:22 Z

I have used an Axum-assembly (dll) in another Axum project - it works fine. However, when I make modifications to the Axum-dll and reload it in the .Axum project, the updates are not reflected in IntelliSense. The strange thing is that I am able to see the modifications in the object-browser, and yet the compiler generates errors when I try to build the project. Does anyone know how to resolve this issue with Axum?

Thanks.

Is there a way to call Non-Isolated methods?

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:26:37 Z

There are some classes that I need to call like System.Array.GetLength(int). I dont see why its not isolated but it isnt. So unless i do a messy hack, Im out of luck. Also things inside of Regex class that arnt >.> boooo

Is there some global lock????

How to write Distributed Application in Axum

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:25:49 Z

Hi,
I am new to AXUM, can any one please let
me know how to write Distributed application in AXUM. I have
tried the example in Programmers Guide but i dont know
how to write client application

Error:Cannot explicitly access domain members except via 'parent'

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:29:12 Z

Hi,
I am Getting an Error:Cannot explicitly access domain members except via 'parent'
while accessing the agent abc from different namespace.

Axum 0.2.0 sample WebFetcher fails to compile.

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:49:26 Z

Hey folks,

I've found a non-compiling example (at least on my box)... I tried this with VS2010 IDE and the 4.0 runtime.

The AgentFetcher and WebFetcher projects in the WebFetcher sample currently don't compile out-of-the-box, giving the following:

		Could not locate the .NET Framework SDK.  The task is looking for the path to the .NET Framework SDK at the location specified in the SDKInstallRootv2.0 value of the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework.  You may be able to solve the problem by doing one of the following:  1.) Install the .NET Framework SDK.  2.) Manually set the above registry key to the correct location.
		Asynchronous agent constructors are on
		Loading Axum command-line compiler from 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Axum'
		C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Axum\axc.exe /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Axum\Microsoft.Axum.Runtime.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Axum\Microsoft.Axum.Runtime.Support.dll" /r:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\mscorlib.dll" /r:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Data.dll" /r:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.dll" /r:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Drawing.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.0\System.Runtime.Serialization.dll" /r:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Xml.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Axum\TseContracts.dll" /r:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Axum\tsecorelib.dll" "AgentFetcher.ax" /async /o:"obj\Debug\AgentFetcher.exe" 
		error loading C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\mscorlib.dll
		error loading C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Data.dll
C:\Users\rhencke\Desktop\Axum\WebFetcher\AgentFetcher.ax(146,27): error MA2426: External method 'System.Net.WebRequest.Create' cannot be called due to potential side effects
C:\Users\rhencke\Desktop\Axum\WebFetcher\AgentFetcher.ax(147,28): error MA2426: External method 'System.Net.WebRequest.GetResponse' cannot be called due to potential side effects
C:\Users\rhencke\Desktop\Axum\WebFetcher\AgentFetcher.ax(150,26): error MA2426: External method 'System.Net.WebResponse.GetResponseStream' cannot be called due to potential side effects
		Axum compilation failed
		Build time: 00:00:04.1366174
Done building project "AgentFetcher.axproj" -- FAILED.

The other samples have worked fine so far.

My workaround was to create and reference a C# assembly from both projects that looked basically like:

using System.Diagnostics.Effects;

[assembly: ContractAssembly]

namespace Contracts.System.Net
{
	[Strict]
	public abstract class WebRequest { }

	[Strict]
	public abstract class WebResponse { }
}

...but I have to admit I really don't know what I'm doing yet with [Strict], other than mimicking what I see in tsecontracts.

Is this the best workaround for now, or is haphazardly marking things as [Strict] going to come back to haunt me?

Thanks :)

Unbounded FIFO queue with replacement.

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:10:37 Z

A great many of the projects that I tend to work on in my industry involve producers (unbounded) queuing items to consumers with 2 additional constraints.

1) Newer items that are essentially updates of old items need to replace unconsumed old items in the queue.
2) The replacement needs to occur such that the new item assumes the replaced item's position in the queue.

To be clear, this does normally require a "key" to match the new item with the older instance of the item in the queue.

Can this behavior be modeled with Axum's channels?

Asynchronous programming in .NET survey

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:25:11 Z

Update: The survey is now closed. Thanks to all that participated!

We’ve heard our customers’ frustrations with asynchronous programming and their call for improved support. We are hoping to better understand why and how you and your customers use asynchronous programming in .NET and how the support we provide for it can be improved in the future.

We invite you to complete a short survey on the Asynchronous Programming Model (APM) as well as on a theoretical language construct called “Asynchronous Methods.” Completing this survey shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes of your time, and doing so will help us to better understand where the APM is lacking, how we can make asynchronous programming better and, ultimately, how we can increase your productivity and the scalability and reliability of your code. We encourage you to forward this message on to others who may also have had experience with asynchronous programming.

http://deploy.ztelligence.com/start/index.jsp?PIN=15TMLTB8M3X9C

Thank you!

Josh Phillips | Program Manager II | Parallel Computing Platform

Practical Sample of Axum Application: The Factory

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:27:11 Z

I think that a practical real life like non-trivial sample application will go a long way towards demonstrating the practical use and strengths of Axum as well as testing Axum's feature set to see if it is complete enough for every day applications. Such a sample application should demonstrate the interplay between physical entities, data and operations. Some minimal amount of exception handling should be included as well.

Is it possible to use Axum to model something practical like a Factory that makes products? Can Axum model the parallelisms, interactions and limitations that exist in the Factory application in a generic and configurable way?

The goal is for the Factory to be as efficient and exhibit as much parallel operations as possible.
Products are made to Order.
Orders are recieved from Customers.
Orders may contain 1 or more products of possibly differents product types.
An Order of product(s) is packaged together and shipped as one Shipment.
Products are made to a Bill of Materials (BOM) that specify Parts and 1 or more manufacturing Steps.
Part Product production requires Orders, Parts, People and Machines.
Products are made of 1 or more subassemblies. Subassemblies can be made in batches of 1 or more.
Production Batches may span 1 or more Orders.
Certain tasks can only be done by a specific type of Person possesing the proper skills.
There may be 1 or more People with a certain skill. A Person may have 1 or more skills.
Machines can only do certain types of operations. Some Machines can be used to do more than 1 type of operation.
Machines and People can only do one operation(task) at a time.
A task can not be performed until all of the Parts, Machine and Person are available to do so.
Machines are best utilized in producing batches of the same type of operation on the same type of Part. (Changeover Setup work may be required between batches of different types of parts.)
Parts come from Inventory Storage. The number of Parts in Inventory are finite and may run out.
Parts for Inventory should be ordered when below a preset reorder limit.
Parts Inventory contain Bins with 1 type of part or subassembly.
Parts can be removed from or deposited into bins in parallel.
Subasemblies may be Inventoried or may be just stored on the Factory Floor as Work In Progress.
Product Production may be prioritized and high priority jobs should proceed before low priority jobs but Batch work should not usually be interrupted once it has been started.
If an Order is taking a long time to be filled, then the priority of the order may be raised to exbidite it.
Some Operations may take more than 1 day to complete.
Machines may breakdown at any time and not be available until fixed.
Certain People may not be available to work short periods during the day or for 1 or more days.
The Factory should always provide realtime status on Shipments, Parts Inventory, Orders, People and Machines.
People and Machine time working and idle should be recorded for management purposes.
The amount of time that a Person can work per day has a preset limit.
A machine may be used for more than 1 shift per day.

The sample application can assume that the Server application, Machines and People are networked together and the Server application is responsible for deciding what should be done next and to gather/report the status and results of the work being performed.

What would such an application look like in Axum?
Can you provide a sample implementation or at least a summary of how this can be built using Axum?

Ensuring that the order of messages in pipeline is preserved

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:33:25 Z

As per Programmer's Guide the following code ensures that the order of messages in pipeline is preserved:

var numbers = new OrderedInteractionPoint<int>();

// Create pipeline:
numbers ==> Fibonacci ==> ProcessResult;

// Send messages to numbers:
for( int i=0; i<numCount; i++ )
    numbers <-- 42-i;

My question is how does it happen? The variable number is of type OrderedInteractionPoint<int>. It means that the messages are queued up in the order they arrive to the node number and leave it in the same order. But how can this "ordered" node affect the order of the messages in the whole pipeline ("ProcessResult will receive the results in the same order that the corresponding inputs have entered the numbers interaction point")? It works and it is really great but I am interested in how it was implemented and what is its impact on performance.

Thanks,
Andrei

What Thread Pool Does Axum Use?

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:52:36 Z

I'm a little unclear from the documentation and the blog/forum posts as to what thread pool Axum actually uses. I believe it uses the CLR Thread Pool (I/O Thread Pool specifically), but I wanted to make sure. I think CCR actually has its own thread pool implementation and wanted to make sure that it wasn't brought over into Axum along with some of the coordination data structures. I also want to make sure its not the Windows Thread Pool or Axum's own implementation. If it's the CLR I/O Thread Pool (as I think), does it queue each Agent's procedure (constructor) to it using ThreadPool.UnsafeQueueNativeOverlapped? Are there any plans to start using the new TPL Tasks, which can take advantage of work stealing thread local queues, which could reduce thread core migration and contention?

Thanks,
Brandon

Inadequate error "INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR: cannot load resource" when compiling the code...

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:11:05 Z

namespace ConsoleApplication
{
    channel C
    {
    }
    
    agent Agent : channel C
    {
        public Agent()
        {
        }
    }
    
    agent Agent : channel C
    {
        public Agent()
        {
        }
    }
}

There is no access to an immutable domain state.

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:47:34 Z

Why can't I get access to an immutable domain state in the following case?

namespace ConsoleApplication
{
    domain Domain
    {
        private readonly int number = 5;
        
        channel Channel
        {
        }
        
        private agent Agent : channel Channel
        {
            public Agent()
            {
                int i = number;
            }
        }
    }
}

Axum Compiled Assemblies and CLR Version

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:15:41 Z

Hi,

Do Axum projects compile into 100% managed assemblies (akin to C#)? Also, what version of the CLR do they require (at all)? Would it be possible to use one on the Compact Framework CLR?

I am curious of the possibilities of getting Axum code onto an Xbox 360 :)

Thanks,

Adam

Bug: Axum (ver 0.2) complier locks up.

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:19:24 Z

I have found a statement that cause the Axum (ver 0.2) compiler to lock-up and forces me to kill Visual Studio. In my case, the statement in question is:

   CellValue = i;

where CellValue is a schema and i is an int. Correcting this statment so that i is assigned to another int results in a successful compile.

As mentioned above this causes the Axum compiler to lock-up (100% CPU) and I have to kill Visual Studio to regain control. There is also a side effect of killing Visual Studio when this happens. When I restart Visual Studio and reload my Axum project I get the following pop-up error:

   Package Load Failure

   Package 'Axum.LanuageService.AxumLanguagePackage, Microsoft.Axum.LanguageService, Version-1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'
   has failed to load properly ( GUID = {...} ). Please contact package vendor for assistance. ...

Once I get this error I have to uninstall Axum and re-install it to correct the error.

If you need the full source code to recreate this problem, please provide an email address that I can send the source code to.

Schema questions

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:23:20 Z

I'm trying to build a map engine in Axum. Not got very far but I've some experience in the question and I think Axum can be an interesting platform for because:

Map engines often rely on IO and potentially slow data sources
A flexible map engines configuration looks like a network with informations flowing both ways, the request flows from the view to the datasources, the datasources produces geo data which flows to the view (and is transformed on the way)

I imagined I could use Axum to gain a high level of concurrency and also a simple way to specify the map configuration network layouts.

So.

I'm struggling a bit with the scemas.

First I declare a ReferenceSystem schema and a Point schema:

        public schema ReferenceSystem
        {
            required int ReferenceId;
            public static function ReferenceSystem Create(int referenceId)
            {
                return new ReferenceSystem
                {
                ReferenceId = referenceId,
                };
            }
        }

        public schema Point
        {
            required double X;
            required double Y;
            
            public static function Point Create(double x, double y)
            {
                return new Point
                {
                X = x,
                Y = y,
                };
            }
        }

I like to provide functions to create instances of schemas as this can get repetitive.

The issue I'm struggling with is apparant when you look at the next code block

        public schema GeoPoint 
        {
            required ReferenceSystem ReferenceSystem;
            required Point Point;
            
            public static function GeoPoint Create(ReferenceSystem referenceSystem, Point point)
            {
                return new GeoPoint
                {
                ReferenceSystem = coerce<ReferenceSystem> referenceSystem,
                Point = coerce<Point> point,
                };
            }
            
        }

If I don't write coerce<> the compiler complains that it can't cost a Point to a Point (for instance). If I understood it correctly the schemas are immutable so IMO this operation should be ok anyway. I don't know the implementation of coerce but I suspect this enforces a copy which is unfortunate but not so problematic here.

Worse is this:

        public schema GeoPoints
        {
            required ReferenceSystem ReferenceSystem;
            required Point[] Points;
            
            public static function GeoPoints Create(ReferenceSystem referenceSystem, Point[] points)
            {
                var localPoints = new Point[points.Length];
                for(var iter = 0; iter < points.Length; ++iter)
                {
                    localPoints[iter] = points[iter];
                }
                return new GeoPoints
                {
                ReferenceSystem = coerce<ReferenceSystem> referenceSystem,
                Points = localPoints,
                };
            }
        }

Here I'm forced to copy the array manually as coerce<> doesn't work for arrays. Arrays are shallow immutable and Point is immutable so I think this operation should just have succeeded.

Also, I'm looking for an immutable list which supports fast append (ie Cons) because I will append attributes to the geo objects when they flow through the network. This has to be fast so I don't wnat to do unnecessary copying.

I tried building one and annotate it with attributes to indicate to Axum type system that it's indeed immutable but I failed in the end because it was basically just a lot of guesswork since I don't know the exact semantics of the attributes.

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics.Effects;
using System.Linq;
using Microsoft.Axum.Attributes;

namespace GeoEngine.Common
{
   [Strict]
   public class ImmutableList<T> : IEnumerable<T>
   {
      [Immutable]
      static readonly ImmutableList<T> s_empty = new ImmutableList<T>();

      [Immutable]
      readonly T m_head;
      [Immutable]
      readonly ImmutableList<T> m_tail;

      [Immutable]
      [Strict]
      [Readable]
      ImmutableList()
      {
         m_head = default(T);
         m_tail = null;
      }

      [Immutable]
      [Strict]
      [Readable]
      public ImmutableList(T head, ImmutableList<T> tail)
      {
         m_head = head;
         m_tail = tail ?? s_empty;
      }



      public T Head
      {
         [return: Readable]
         [Immutable]
         [Strict]
         [Readable]
         [Function]
         get
         { 
            return m_head;
         }
      }

      public ImmutableList<T> Tail
      {
         [return: Immutable]
         [return: Readable]
         [Immutable]
         [Strict]
         [Readable]
         [Function]
         get
         {
            return m_tail ?? s_empty;
         }
      }

      public bool IsEmpty
      {
         [return: Immutable]
         [return: Readable]
         [Immutable]
         [Strict]
         [Readable]
         [Function]
         get
         {
            return m_tail == null;
         }
      }

      public static ImmutableList<T> Empty
      {
         [return: Immutable]
         [return: Readable]
         [Immutable]
         [Strict]
         [Readable]
         [Function]
         get
         {
            return s_empty;
         }
      }

      [return: Immutable]
      [return: Readable]
      [Immutable]
      [Strict]
      [Readable]
      [Function]
      public ImmutableList<T> Cons(
         [Readable] T value)
      {
         return new ImmutableList<T>(
            value,
            this);
      }

      [return: Immutable]
      [return: Readable]
      [Immutable]
      [Strict]
      [Readable]
      [Function]
      public ImmutableList<T> MultiCons<TX>(
         [Readable] IEnumerable<TX> values)
         where TX : T
      {
         if (values != null)
         {
            return values.Aggregate(
               this,
               (list, arg2) => list.Cons(arg2));
         }
         else
         {
            return this;
         }
      }

      [Immutable]
      [Strict]
      [Readable]
      [Function]
      public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator()
      {
         var current = this;

         while(!current.IsEmpty)
         {
            yield return current.Head;
            current = current.Tail;
         }
      }

      [Immutable]
      [Strict]
      [Readable]
      [Function]
      IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
      {
         return GetEnumerator();
      }
   }
}

As you can see it's just alot of annotating with attributes I don't understand. If you can provide me with some feedback on how to proceed I would appreciate that.

marten_range

Axum installation doesn't progress.

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:37:23 Z

I can't install Axum on my Windows Vista SP2 operating system running on Virtual PC 2007. Installation reaches a dialog window with the following message "Please wait while the installer finishes determining your disk space requirements." and doesn't progress. How can i bypass this?

Andrei

Measuring Parallelism with Axum

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:28:12 Z

How do I know Axum is actually parallelising an application. I have taken the fibonacci example given in the Programmer's guide and tried adding a thread id to the actual function that executes the fibonacci sequence but it seems to execute on the same thread. I could add a timer to the axum program and write a sequential program to actually measure the results but wanted to check if there are any other ways. I am executing the app on a VPC Image running on an AMD X2 Turin host.

Axum as a WCF Service Host

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:25:50 Z

Hello,

I am trying to write a WCF Service with Axum. But when I build it doesnt not recognise the WcfServiceHost keywords.

var hst = new WcfServiceHost(new NetTcpBinding(SecurityMode.None, false));

hst.Host<ServiceDomain.ServiceAgent>("net.tcp://localhost/AxumWCFService");

I am using the above lines. May be I am missing something obvious but for some reason the intellisense doesnt seem to be working as well. I tried using the object browser but it came up blank. Any help would be appreciated.

the intellisense of the vs 2008 take 1-2 seconds to appear

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:05:39 Z

is it a by-design problem?

Axum Samples

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:12:56 Z

These are pretty minor things, so don't worry about them too much...

a) If you download the VS2010 install for Axum 0.2.0, the included samples from the samples.zip all have the solution file format from VS2008 and require going through the upgrade wizard before running them.
b) Would it be possible to get a link to the samples.zip in the Start Menu folder?

Thanks, and keep up the good work!

AgentCreationMode reference in documentation

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:29:16 Z

In the Axum Language Spec on page 14, there is a piece of code that reads:

public domain X 
{   
  public X(string address) 
  { 
    IHost hst = new InprocHost(); 
    Host<Proc>(“a”, AgentCreationMode.UseExisting, hst); 
 
    Timer(TimeSpan.FromHours(2)) --> (x => { hst.Evict(“a”);} ); 
  } 
 
  private reader agent Proc : channel CtLessSimple 
  {  
    public Proc() 
    { 
      // Do something meaningful. 
    } 
  } 
}

There doesn't seem to be an AgentCreationMode that I could find, but there is an AgentHostingMode. Should I use AgentHostingMode here?

Installation error

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:37:35 Z

I have Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 and I have Visual Studio 2008.

I installed Axum and I had an installation error but Axum was in the list of projects, I was able to run the program showed in the tutorial video. Then I installed Microsoft .NET SDK v6.1 and things started to complicate, after installation of the SDK Visual Studio did not recognized *.axproj as a project file, then I executed

devenv.exe /ResetSkipPkgs

as suggested in the help and *.axproj was recognized but every time I want to open the code file Program.ax VS2008 breaks and gives an error 'Microsoft found an error and needs to close'

I want to repair/modify/remove Axum and I got a message: 'Microsoft Axum requires Visual Studio 2008' to make any of these operations, it is strange, is not it?

Any suggestions to solve these problems?

Thank you for your attention.

Luis.
luixsansan@hotmail.com

Shorthand for PrimaryChannel::

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:58:13 Z

What do you think about having :: as a shorthand way of saying PrimaryChannel:: for agents?

Why I can't create or open an axum project

Tue, 12 May 2009 11:10:39 Z

I installed axum today on my computer. The installer seems a little bit different as it closed up automatically after copied the files. But anyway, I cannot create or open an axum project. It gave me a message said "Invalid URI: The format of the URI could not be determined." If I start the IDE with safemode parameter and open the project, it said "not support by this version".

I'm using Vista x86, VS2008 Team System and Visual SVN.

Axum 0.2.0 is here!

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:42:49 Z

Reposted from the Axum Team Blog.

Are you excited?

We thought so. We’ve been listening to some of your pain points with Axum 0.1.0 and went straight to the kitchen to cook up 0.2.0 - now available for your code-slingin’ pleasure. We’ve fixed quite a few bugs and made some overall improvements. For example we’ve,

Added an installer for Visual Studio 2010 Beta1
Enabled parallel execution of functional nodes in dataflow networks
Made it possible to change fonts and colors of Axum language elements via Tools | Options | Fonts and Colors
Moved samples to a zip file to make using them easier
Introduced AxumLite.zip – an Axum command line compiler that doesn't require Visual Studio
Fixed the compiler error where the channel name was the same as the enclosing namespace name
Made handling of immutable primitive types more rigorous; fixed some side-effect related bugs
Added 'using System.Concurrency.Messaging' to the VS-generated template to make classes like OrderedInteractionPoint visible by default
Added the async method Microsoft.Axum.IO.Console.ReadLine
Added a spiffy Auction sample (A big shout out to Matthew Podwysocki for his help!)

Remember, Axum’s success and ability to improve your developer toolkit is very much dependent on your feedback. Please try it, abuse it, and be very vocal about what you think on the forum. We love to hear both good and bad things!

Axum 0.2.0 for Visual Studio 2008
Axum 0.2.0 for Visual Studio 2010
Axum Lite

Josh Phillips and the Axum Team

will Axum get visual studio 2010 support?

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:04:49 Z

The question says it all. I can't afford to purchase a copy of visual studio 2008 right now or else i would so that i can try this stuff out. I would like to see how well it works with some grid computing stuff, but alas, i cannot install it.

Logical Relationship between Axum and Entity Framework

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:29:38 Z

One of the current fads in architecting data stores is to fashion related data into Entities and to use something like the Entity Framework to work with the data.

What is the logical relationship between Axum's Agents and Domains and Data Entities in an Entity Framework?

How would you get Axum to use the Entity Framework for its data access?

Creating Domains programmatically

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:06:32 Z

Hi,

I’m trying to design a simulation systems similar to the Real Estate example. In my case I try to ‘copy’ a supermarket chain. The idea is that I have a Supermarket Domain which contains the definition of Product Agent, Customer Agent, etc.

The result should be that I have 1 Main application (domain), multiple domains each representing one store, and each store has multiple products (agent) and multiple customers (agent).

So the “main” program (not part of the Supermarket Domain) would create X domains of type “Supermarket Domain” and after the domains are created the constructor of the domain would generate the agents via (host<>).

My question, does that work? And how can I programmatically create new domains and name them?
Is there a similar command to Agent.CreateInNewDomain() like Domain.CreateNew(string name)??

I hope this is a reasonable explanation of what I try to do.

Thanks for your help!
alexll

schema transformations and possible coerce extensions

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:42:33 Z

I have just read about the coerce operator and its use with converting objects to schema instances. I have some thoughts that would expand on that concept. If this is already being discussed please direct me to that location. Otherwise here is what I have come up with.

I would like to propose that some extentions to the usage of coerce with converting from a schema back to an object. The three following examples may not cover all cases but should provide enough information to fully express the concept:

scenario 1: map a schema back to an object

var foo = coerce<MyObjectType> some_schema_variable;

scenario 2: map a schema onto an object but use values from an existing object where the schema does not have properties.

var bar = coerce<SomeType>(map_non_schema_values_from_this_object) some_schema_variable;

where bar had 3 properties { Name, Address, PhoneNumber } and some_schema_variable of type Schema_A that had properties { Name, Address } and map_non_schema_values_from_this_object contained the remaining PhoneNumber property

scenario 3: map a schema onto an object, but provide a translation function. This actually includes scenario 2, but could do without for the functionality of just mapping the schema

var baz = coerce<SomeType>(map_non_schema_values_from_this_object, myTranslationFunction) some_schema_variable;

If some_schema_variable were of type Schema_A then myTranslationFunction would be of type Func<Schema_A, SomeType, SomeType>

a more basic transformation would be

var baz = coerce<SomeType>(myTranslationFunction) some_schema_variable;

where myTranslationFunction would be of type Func<Schema_A, SomeType>

hope this helps

Charles

Visual Studio Language Service limitations

Fri, 08 May 2009 18:29:07 Z

Hi,

I'm one of the guys that use to use a dark/black background color in Visual Studio when I code. When I installed Axum
and fired up VS and created a Axum Console Application, I was presented with a combination of black and white background colors.

I thought that you probably had exposed the different Axum keywords in the Fonts and Colors section in Visual Studio's Options dialog,
but to no avail.

Please expose these settings so that it is possible to use a syntax highlighting theme of the user's choice.

--larsw

Lars Wilhelmsen | Senior Consultant | Miles, Norway | Connected Systems MVP | http://larswilhelmsen.com/