1struct::pool(n) Tcl Data Structures struct::pool(n)
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8 struct::pool - Create and manipulate pool objects (of discrete items)
9
11 package require Tcl 8.2
12 package require struct::pool ?1.2.1?
14 ::struct::pool ?poolName? ?maxsize?
16 poolName option ?arg arg ...?
18 poolName add itemName1 ?itemName2 itemName3 ...?
20 poolName clear ?-force?
22 poolName destroy ?-force?
24 poolName info type ?arg?
26 poolName maxsize ?maxsize?
28 poolName release itemName
30 poolName remove itemName ?-force?
32 poolName request itemVar ?options?
34_________________________________________________________________
36
38 This package provides pool objects which can be used to manage finite
39 collections of discrete items.
40 ::struct::pool ?poolName? ?maxsize?
42 Creates a new pool object. If no poolName is supplied, then the
43 new pool will be named poolX, where X is a positive integer.
44 The optional second argument maxsize has to be a positive inte‐
45 ger indicating the maximum size of the pool; this is the maximum
46 number of items the pool may hold. The default for this value is
47 10.
48 The pool object has an associated global Tcl command whose name
50 is poolName. This command may be used to invoke various configu‐
51 ration operations on the report. It has the following general
52 form:
53 poolName option ?arg arg ...?
55 Option and the args determine the exact behavior of the
56 command. See section POOL OBJECT COMMAND for a detailed
57 list of options and their behaviour.
58
60 The purpose of the pool command and the pool object command that it
61 generates, is to manage pools of discrete items. Examples of a pool of
62 discrete items are:
63 · the seats in a cinema, theatre, train etc.. for which visi‐
65 tors/travelers can make a reservation;
66 · the dynamic IP-addresses that an ISP can dole out to sub‐
68 scribers;
69 · a car rental's collection of cars, which can be rented by cus‐
71 tomers;
72 · the class rooms in a school building, which need to be sched‐
74 uled;
75 · the database connections available to client-threads in a web-
77 server application;
78 · the books in a library that customers can borrow;
80 · etc ...
82 The common denominator in the examples is that there is a more or less
84 fixed number of items (seats, IP-addresses, cars, ...) that are sup‐
85 posed to be allocated on a more or less regular basis. An item can be
86 allocated only once at a time. An item that is allocated, must be
87 released before it can be re-allocated. While several items in a pool
88 are being allocated and released continuously, the total number of
89 items in the pool remains constant.
90 Keeping track of which items are allocated, and by whom, is the purpose
92 of the pool command and its subordinates.
93 Pool parlance: If we say that an item is allocated, it means that the
95 item is busy, owned or occupied; it is not available anymore. If an
96 item is free, it is available. Deallocating an item is equivalent to
97 setting free or releasing an item. The person or entity to which the
98 item has been allotted is said to own the item.
99
101 Discrete items
102 The pool command is designed for discrete items only. Note that there
104 are pools where allocation occurs on a non-discrete basis, for example
105 computer memory. There are also pools from which the shares that are
106 doled out are not expected to be returned, for example a charity fund
107 or a pan of soup from which you may receive a portion. Finally, there
108 are even pools from which nothing is ever allocated or returned, like a
109 swimming pool or a cesspool.
110 Unique item names
112 A pool cannot manage duplicate item names. Therefore, items in a pool
114 must have unique names.
115 Item equivalence
117 From the point of view of the manager of a pool, items are equivalent.
119 The manager of a pool is indifferent about which entity/person occupies
120 a given item. However, clients may have preferences for a particular
121 item, based on some item property they know.
122 Preferences
124 A future owner may have a preference for a particular item. Preference
126 based allocation is supported (see the -prefer option to the request
127 subcommand). A preference for a particular item is most likely to
128 result from variability among features associated with the items. Note
129 that the pool commands themselves are not designed to manage such item
130 properties. If item properties play a role in an application, they
131 should be managed separately.
132
134 The following subcommands and corresponding arguments are available to
135 any pool object command.
136 poolName add itemName1 ?itemName2 itemName3 ...?
138 This command adds the items on the command line to the pool. If
139 duplicate item names occur on the command line, an error is
140 raised. If one or more of the items already exist in the pool,
141 this also is considered an error.
142 poolName clear ?-force?
144 Removes all items from the pool. If there are any allocated
145 items at the time when the command is invoked, an error is
146 raised. This behaviour may be modified through the -force argu‐
147 ment. If it is supplied on the command line, the pool will be
148 cleared regardless the allocation state of its items.
149 poolName destroy ?-force?
151 Destroys the pool data structure, all associated variables and
152 the associated pool object command. By default, the command
153 checks whether any items are still allocated and raises an error
154 if such is the case. This behaviour may be modified through the
155 argument -force. If it is supplied on the command line, the pool
156 data structure will be destroyed regardless allocation state of
157 its items.
158 poolName info type ?arg?
160 Returns various information about the pool for further program‐
161 matic use. The type argument indicates the type of information
162 requested. Only the type allocID uses an additional argument.
163 allocID itemName
165 returns the allocID of the item whose name is itemName.
166 Free items have an allocation id of -1.
167 allitems
169 returns a list of all items in the pool.
170 allocstate
172 Returns a list of key-value pairs, where the keys are the
173 items and the values are the corresponding allocation
174 id's. Free items have an allocation id of -1.
175 cursize
177 returns the current pool size, i.e. the number of items
178 in the pool.
179 freeitems
181 returns a list of items that currently are not allocated.
182 maxsize
184 returns the maximum size of the pool.
185 poolName maxsize ?maxsize?
188 Sets or queries the maximum size of the pool, depending on
189 whether the maxsize argument is supplied or not. If maxsize is
190 supplied, the maximum size of the pool will be set to that
191 value. If no argument is supplied, the current maximum size of
192 the pool is returned. In this variant, the command is an alias
193 for:
194 poolName info maxsize.
196 The maxsize argument has to be a positive integer.
198 poolName release itemName
200 Releases the item whose name is itemName that was allocated pre‐
201 viously. An error is raised if the item was not allocated at the
202 time when the command was issued.
203 poolName remove itemName ?-force?
205 Removes the item whose name is itemName from the pool. If the
206 item was allocated at the time when the command was invoked, an
207 error is raised. This behaviour may be modified through the
208 optional argument -force. If it is supplied on the command line,
209 the item will be removed regardless its allocation state.
210 poolName request itemVar ?options?
212 Handles a request for an item, taking into account a possible
213 preference for a particular item. There are two possible out‐
214 comes depending on the availability of items:
215 [1] The request is honoured, an item is allocated and the
217 variable whose name is passed with the argument itemVar
218 will be set to the name of the item that was allocated.
219 The command returns 1.
220 [2] The request is denied. No item is allocated. The variable
222 whose name is itemVar is not set. Attempts to read item‐
223 Var may raise an error if the variable was not defined
224 before issuing the request. The command returns 0.
225 The return values from this command are meant to be inspected. The
227 examples below show how to do this. Failure to check the return value
228 may result in erroneous behaviour. If no preference for a particular
229 item is supplied through the option -prefer (see below), then all
230 requests are honoured as long as items are available.
231 The following options are supported:
233 -allocID allocID
235 If the request is honoured, an item will be allocated to
236 the entity identified by allocID. If the allocation state
237 of an item is queried, it is this allocation ID that will
238 be returned. If the option -allocID is not supplied, the
239 item will be given to and owned by dummyID. Allocation
240 id's may be anything except the value -1, which is
241 reserved for free items.
242 -prefer preferredItem
244 This option modifies the allocation strategy as follows:
245 If the item whose name is preferredItem is not allocated
246 at the time when the command is invoked, the request is
247 honoured (return value is 1). If the item was allocated
248 at the time when the command was invoked, the request is
249 denied (return value is 0).
250
252 Two examples are provided. The first one mimics a step by step interac‐
253 tive tclsh session, where each step is explained. The second example
254 shows the usage in a server application that talks to a back-end appli‐
255 cation.
256 Example 1
258 This example presents an interactive tclsh session which considers the
260 case of a Car rental's collection of cars. Ten steps explain its usage
261 in chronological order, from the creation of the pool, via the most
262 important stages in the usage of a pool, to the final destruction.
263 Note aside:
265 In this example, brand names are used to label the various items. How‐
267 ever, a brand name could be regarded as a property of an item. Because
268 the pool command is not designed to manage properties of items, they
269 need to be managed separately. In the latter case the items should be
270 labeled with more neutral names such as: car1, car2, car3 , etc ... and
271 a separate database or array should hold the brand names associated
272 with the car labels.
273 1. Load the package into an interpreter
275 % package require pool
276 0.1
277 2. Create a pool object called `CarPool' with a maximum size of 55 items (cars):
279 % pool CarPool 55
280 CarPool
281 4. Add items to the pool:
283 % CarPool add Toyota Trabant Chrysler1 Chrysler2 Volkswagen
284 5. Somebody crashed the Toyota. Remove it from the pool as follows:
286 % CarPool remove Toyota
287 6. Acquired a new car for the pool. Add it as follows:
289 % CarPool add Nissan
290 7. Check whether the pool was adjusted correctly:
292 % CarPool info allitems
293 Trabant Chrysler1 Chrysler2 Volkswagen Nissan
294 Suspend the interactive session temporarily, and show the programmatic
297 use of the request subcommand:
298 # Mrs. Swift needs a car. She doesn't have a preference for a
300 # particular car. We'll issue a request on her behalf as follows:
301 if { [CarPool request car -allocID "Mrs. Swift"] } {
302 # request was honoured, process the variable `car'
303 puts "$car has been allocated to [CarPool info allocID $car]."
304 } else {
305 # request was denied
306 puts "No car available."
307 }
308 Note how the if command uses the value returned by the request subcom‐
311 mand.
312 # Suppose Mr. Wiggly has a preference for the Trabant:
314 if { [CarPool request car -allocID "Mr. Wiggly" -prefer Trabant] } {
315 # request was honoured, process the variable `car'
316 puts "$car has been allocated to [CarPool info allocID $car]."
317 } else {
318 # request was denied
319 puts "The Trabant was not available."
320 }
321 Resume the interactive session:
324 8. When the car is returned then you can render it available by:
326 % CarPool release Trabant
327 9. When done, you delete the pool.
329 % CarPool destroy
330 Couldn't destroy `CarPool' because some items are still allocated.
331 Oops, forgot that Mrs. Swift still occupies a car.
333 10. We force the destruction of the pool as follows:
335 % CarPool destroy -force
336 Example 2
339 This example describes the case from which the author's need for pool
341 management originated. It is an example of a server application that
342 receives requests from client applications. The client requests are
343 dispatched onto a back-end application before being returned to the
344 client application. In many cases there are a few equivalent instances
345 of back-end applications to which a client request may be passed along.
346 The file descriptors that identify the channels to these back-end
347 instances make up a pool of connections. A particular connection may be
348 allocated to just one client request at a time.
349 # Create the pool of connections (pipes)
351 set maxpipes 10
352 pool Pipes $maxpipes
353 for {set i 0} {$i < $maxpipes} {incr i} {
354 set fd [open "|backendApplication" w+]
355 Pipes add $fd
356 }
357 # A client request comes in. The request is identified as `clientX'.
359 # Dispatch it onto an instance of a back-end application
360 if { [Pipes request fd -allocID clientX] } {
361 # a connection was allocated
362 # communicate to the back-end application via the variable `fd'
363 puts $fd "someInstruction"
364 # ...... etc.
365 } else {
366 # all connections are currently occupied
367 # store the client request in a queue for later processing,
368 # or return a 'Server busy' message to the client.
369 }
370
373 This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain
374 bugs and other problems. Please report such in the category struct ::
375 pool of the Tcllib SF Trackers [http://source‐
376 forge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883]. Please also report any ideas for
377 enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.
378
380 discrete items, finite, pool, struct
381
383 Copyright (c) 2002, Erik Leunissen <e.leunissen@hccnet.nl>
384struct 1.2.1 struct::pool(n)