TuringLang / TuringLang/AbstractPPL.jl

isless on VarName

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Dominant language
Julia
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Description

Sometimes, it's handy to be able to sort VarNames.

If you naively do sort(vns; by=repr) i.e. order them according to lexicographic order of their string representations, then you get things like x[10] coming before x[1].

I already actually wrote some code here to do this:

using AbstractPPL: IndexLens, PropertyLens, ComposedFunction
function Base.isless(::typeof(identity), ::Union{IndexLens,PropertyLens,ComposedFunction})
    return true
end
function Base.isless(::Union{IndexLens,PropertyLens,ComposedFunction}, ::typeof(identity))
    return false
end
Base.isless(opt1::IndexLens, opt2::PropertyLens) = true
Base.isless(opt1::PropertyLens, opt2::IndexLens) = false
function Base.isless(opt1::IndexLens, opt2::IndexLens)
    return isless(opt1.indices, opt2.indices)
end
function Base.isless(opt1::PropertyLens{sym1}, opt2::PropertyLens{sym2}) where {sym1,sym2}
    return isless(sym1, sym2)
end
function Base.isless(opt1::Union{IndexLens,PropertyLens}, opt2::ComposedFunction)
    if isequal(opt1, opt2.outer)
        return true
    else
        return isless(opt1, opt2.outer)
    end
end
function Base.isless(opt1::ComposedFunction, opt2::Union{IndexLens,PropertyLens})
    if isequal(opt1.outer, opt2)
        return false
    else
        return isless(opt1.outer, opt2)
    end
end
function Base.isless(opt1::ComposedFunction, opt2::ComposedFunction)
    if isequal(opt1.outer, opt2)
        return isless(opt1.inner, opt2.inner)
    else
        return isless(opt1.outer, opt2)
    end
end
function Base.isless(vn1::VarName{sym1}, vn2::VarName{sym2}) where {sym1,sym2}
    if sym1 == sym2
        return isless(AbstractPPL.getoptic(vn1), AbstractPPL.getoptic(vn2))
    else
        return isless(sym1, sym2)
    end
end
function Base.isless(vn1::VarName{sym1,typeof(identity)}, vn2::VarName{sym2,typeof(identity)}) where {sym1,sym2}
    return isless(sym1, sym2)
end

This was originally part of FlexiChains, but it's of course quite nasty piracy which is why I removed it. Its natural home would be AbstractPPL. And tests should be added, of course.

Although note that this is actually still kind of piracy. The functions on the optics for example should recurse into a different function that's not called Base.isless.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the definitions and existing uses of VarName, IndexLens, PropertyLens, and ComposedFunction, then inspect AbstractPPL.getoptic and the relevant ordering interfaces. Determine whether the proposed comparisons belong in AbstractPPL without piracy, add ordering tests for variable names and optics, and consider the issue's stated recursion concern before marking the behavior complete.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
julia
Domain
backend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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