Functional Reactive Programming in C++

Meeting C++ 2016

Ivan Čukić

[email protected]
http://cukic.co
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Disclaimer

Make your code readable. Pretend the next person

who looks at your code is a psychopath and they know
where you live.
Philip Wadler

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Disclaimer

The code snippets are optimized for presentation, it is not

production-ready code.
std namespace is omitted, value arguments used instead of const-refs or
forwarding refs, etc.

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.
FUNCTIONAL DESIGN

Higher-order functions
Purity and referential transparency
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Elements of functional design

Higher-order functions
Purity
Immutable state
...

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Higher-order functions

We have had higher-order functions since C++98.

No lambdas, no std::function ... needed.

f i n d _ i f ( b e g i n ( cs ) , end ( cs ) , is_error ) ;

auto gt42 = b i n d ( greater<>() , _1 , 42);

/ / or old bind1st , . . .

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Higher-order functions

We have had higher-order functions for as long as we have had

the call operator.

class functional_object {
public :
r e s u l t operator() ( ... ) const
{
...
}
};

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Word frequency

1986: Donald Knuth was asked to implement a program for

the "Programming pearls" column in the Communications of
ACM journal.
The task: Read a file of text, determine the n most frequently
used words, and print out a sorted list of those words along
with their frequencies.

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Word frequency

1986: Donald Knuth was asked to implement a program for

the "Programming pearls" column in the Communications of
ACM journal.
The task: Read a file of text, determine the n most frequently
used words, and print out a sorted list of those words along
with their frequencies.
His solution written in Pascal was 10 pages long.

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Word frequency

Response by Doug McIlroy was a 6-line shell script that did

the same:
t r −cs A−Za−z ’ \ n ’ |
t r A−Z a−z |
sort |
u n i q −c |
s o r t −rn |
sed ${1} q

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Functional thinking – data transformation

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Word frequency in C++

I t was a b r i g h t cold day i n A p r i l , \n

and the c l o c k s were s t r i k i n g t h i r t e e n . \n
Winston Smith , h i s c h i n nuzzled

data | transfo r m (
[ ] ( char c ) {
return isalnum ( c ) ? c : ’\n ’ ;
})

I t \nwas\na\n b r i g h t \ncold\nday\n i n \n A p r i l \n\n

and\nthe\n c l o c k s \nwere\n s t r i k i n g \n t h i r t e e n \n\n
Winston\nSmith\n\n h i s \n c h i n \nnuzzled

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Word frequency in C++

I t \nwas\na\n b r i g h t \ncold\nday\n i n \n A p r i l \n\n

and\nthe\n c l o c k s \nwere\n s t r i k i n g \n t h i r t e e n \n\n
Winston\nSmith\n\n h i s \n c h i n \nnuzzled

... | transfo r m ( tolower )

i t \nwas\na\n b r i g h t \ncold\nday\n i n \n a p r i l \n\n

and\nthe\n c l o c k s \nwere\n s t r i k i n g \n t h i r t e e n \n\n
winston\n s m i t h \n\n h i s \n c h i n \nnuzzled

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Word frequency in C++

i t \nwas\na\n b r i g h t \ncold\nday\n i n \n a p r i l \n\n

and\nthe\n c l o c k s \nwere\n s t r i k i n g \n t h i r t e e n \n\n
winston\n s m i t h \n\n h i s \n c h i n \nnuzzled

... | split ( ’\n ’)

it was a bright cold day in april

and the clocks were striking thirteen
winston smith his chin nuzzled

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Word frequency in C++

it was a bright cold day in april

and the clocks were striking thirteen
winston smith his chin nuzzled

... | sort
| group_by ( equal_to < > ( ) )

{ a a a a a ... },
{ as as as as as . . . } ,
{ at at at at at . . . }

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Word frequency in C++

{ a a a a a ... },
{ and and and and and . . . }
{ as as as as as ... },

... | transfo r m ( [ ] ( const auto &grp ) {

r e t u r n make_pair (
count ( grp ) , * grp . c b e g i n ( ) ) ;
})

( 181, a ),
( 163, and ) ,
( 39 , as ) ,

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Word frequency in C++

( 181, a ),
( 163, and ) ,
( 39 , as ) ,

... | sort
| reverse
| take ( 2 )

( 439, the ),
( 256, of ),

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Word frequency in C++

data | transform ( [ ] ( c h a r c ) {
return isalnum ( c ) ? c : ’ \ n ’ ;
})
| transform ( tolower )
| split ( ’\n ’)
| sort
| group_by ( equal_to < > ( ) )
| transform ( [ ] ( const auto &grp ) {
r e t u r n make_pair (
count ( grp ) , * grp . c b e g i n ( ) ) ;
})
| sort
| reverse
| take ( n )
* Inspired by the solution written by N. Milev in Haskell
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Purity and referential transparency

i n t answer ( )
{
std::cout « "Calculating the result\n" ;
r e t u r n 42;
}

...
auto r e s u l t = answer() ;
...

$ ./a.out
Calculating the result

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Purity and referential transparency

i n t answer ( )
{
std::cout « "Calculating the result\n" ;
r e t u r n 42;
}

...
auto r e s u l t = 42 ;
...

$ ./a.out

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Handling the program state

v o i d o n _ c l i c k e d ( const c l i c k _ e v e n t &ev ent )

{
employees_view−> v i s i b l e = t r u e ;
employees_view−>load_team ( ) ;
}

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Handling the program state

v o i d o n _ c l i c k e d ( const c l i c k _ e v e n t &ev ent )

{
employees_view−> v i s i b l e = t r u e ;
employees_view−>load_team ( ) ;
}

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Handling the program state

v o i d o n _ c l i c k e d ( const c l i c k _ e v e n t &ev ent )

{
employees_view−> v i s i b l e = t r u e ;
employees_view−>load_team ( ) ;
}

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Handling the program state

v o i d o n _ c l i c k e d ( const c l i c k _ e v e n t &ev ent )

{
employees_view−> v i s i b l e = t r u e ;
employees_view−>load_team ( ) ;
}

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Handling the program state

v o i d o n _ c l i c k e d ( const c l i c k _ e v e n t &ev ent )

{
employees_view−> v i s i b l e = t r u e ;
employees_view−>load_team ( ) ;
}

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Handling the program state

v o i d o n _ c l i c k e d ( const c l i c k _ e v e n t &ev ent )

{
employees_view−> v i s i b l e = t r u e ;
employees_view−>load_team ( ) ;
}

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Object-oriented design

Don’t ask for the information you need to do the work;

ask the object that has the information to do the work
for you.
Allen Holub

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Object-oriented design

Step one in the transformation of a successful

procedural developer into a successful object
developer is a lobotomy.
David West, Object Thinking

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Object-oriented design

[...] Besides that, object thinking will lead to object

immutability [...]
Yegor Bugayenko

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Object-oriented design

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State in pure functional programs

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State in pure functional programs

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Isn’t creating new worlds expensive?

Option 1: We don’t really want copies:

c l a s s world {
world w i t h _ p o p u l a t i o n
( i n t new_population ) &&
{
world r e s u l t ( std : : move( * t h i s ) ) ;
...
return result ;
}
};

Option 2: Use immutable data structures (see Okasaki)

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Isn’t creating new worlds expensive?

c l a s s world {
world w i t h _ p o p u l a t i o n ( i n t ) && ;
};

auto brave_new_world =
world.with_population(6) ; // error!
auto new_world =
move(world).with_population(420) ;

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Isn’t creating new worlds expensive?

c l a s s world {
world w i t h _ p o p u l a t i o n ( i n t ) && ;
};

The compiler enforces us not to write inneficient code.

If we provide anything else, we explicitly tell through our API
that we support having parallel worlds.

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Benefits of having parallel worlds

Time travel (and reverse debugging, like gdb does)

Testing different possible scenarios at the same time
Maybe even having them interact with each other

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REACTIVE PROGRAMMING

What is reactive?
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What is reactive?

We believe that a coherent approach to systems

architecture is needed, and we believe that all
necessary aspects are already recognised individually:
we want systems that are Responsive, Resilient, Elastic
and Message Driven. We call these Reactive Systems.
Systems built as Reactive Systems are more flexible,
loosely-coupled and scalable. This makes them easier
to develop and amenable to change. They are
significantly more tolerant of failure and when failure
does occur they meet it with elegance rather than
disaster. Reactive Systems are highly responsive, giving
users effective interactive feedback.
Reactive Manifesto 2.0

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Reactive systems

One view of being reactive:

responds quickly
resilient to failure
responsive under workload
based on message-passing

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What is reactive?

Showing a response to a stimulus

Oxford Dictionary

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Ways to be reactive?

C: event call-backs
Java: event listeners
C++/Qt: signals and slots
Threads for all!

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Ways to be reactive?

C: event call-backs
Java: event listeners
C++/Qt: signals and slots
Threads for all!

even IO streams?

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Lets try this again...

Design components:

to react to requests, not to respond

to request, not to need the response

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Lets try this again...

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Lets try this again...

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Lets try this again...

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Lets try this again...

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Modify and pass on

No shared mutable state

Separate isolated components
Communication only through message passing
No upstream response messages

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Modify and pass on

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Modify and pass on

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What is a source?

Web server client connection requests

User interface events
Database results
I/O
Any data collection
...

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Streams are ranges

Streams can only be transformed with algorithms that accept

input ranges, since we don’t have all the items. We don’t even
know when (if) they will end.
transform, filter, take, drop, etc.

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Small demo

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Small demo

We have a stream of mouse cordinates: mouse_stream

And a set of receivers like mouse_cursor,
top_ruler_marker, etc.

Basic direct connection:

mouse_stream | mouse_cursor −>move_to ;

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Transforming the input

We want to transform the mouse coordinate, to project it on

the x axis:
mouse_stream |
transform ( p r o j e c t _ o n _ x ) |
top_ruler_marker −>move_to ;

But the mouse cursor marker is no longer moving.

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Forking the stream

mouse_stream |
/ / Pass the events to the mouse cursor ,
/ / and pass them to the next
/ / t r a n s f o r m a t i o n i n the c h a i n
tee ( mouse_cursor −>move_to ) |

/ / p r o j e c t i n g the mouse c o o r d i n a t e s on
/ / the x a x i s
transform ( p r o j e c t _ o n _ x ) |
top_ruler_marker −>move_to ;

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Properly forking the stream

mouse_stream |
tee ( mouse_cursor −>move_to ) |
/ / I f we want to do something more
/ / complex with both streams a f t e r
/ / f o r k i n g , tee i s not r e a d a b l e
fork (
transfo r m ( p r o j e c t _ o n _ x ) |
top_ruler_marker −>move_to ,
transfo r m ( p r o j e c t _ o n _ y ) |
l e f t _ r u l e r _ m a r k e r −>move_to
);

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Transformations with state

class gravity_object {
public :
...

p o i n t o p e r a t o r ( ) ( const p o i n t &new_point )
{
m_point . x = m_point . x * .99
+ new_point . x * . 0 1 ;
m_point . y = ... ;
r e t u r n m_point ;
}

private :
p o i n t m_point ;
...
}; 53
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Transformations with state

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Transformations with state

mouse_stream |
tee ( mouse_cursor −>move_to ) |
fork (
map ( p r o j e c t _ o n _ x ) |
top_ruler_marker −>move_to ,
map ( p r o j e c t _ o n _ y ) |
l e f t _ r u l e r _ m a r k e r −>move_to ,
map(gravity_object()) |
g r a v i t y _ m a r k e r −>move_to
);

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Stream filtering

We want only points where point.y % 100 == 0

mouse_stream |
tee ( mouse_cursor −>move_to ) |
fork (
...
filter(point_filter) |
f i l t e r _ m a r k e r −>move_to
);

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Generating new events

class continuous_points {
public :
vector < p o i n t >
o p e r a t o r ( ) ( const p o i n t &new_point ) {
/ / gener a t e a l l the p o i n t s between the
/ / p r e v i o u s one and the new one
vector < p o i n t > r e s u l t = ...

m_previous_point = new_point ;
return result ;
}

private :
p o i n t m_previous_point ;
};
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Generating new events

mouse_stream |
tee ( mouse_cursor −>move_to ) |
fork (
...
/ / or tr a n sf o r m ( . . . ) | f l a t t e n
flatmap(continuous_points()) |
filter ( point_filter ) |
f i l t e r _ m a r k e r −>move_to
);

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What are the benefits?

Separate components
Reusable, composable transformations
Asynchronousness built into the software design

But that is not all...

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Microservices?

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Microservices?

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Microservices?

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Microservices?

KDE Frameworks 5

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Libraries

For the lower level parts:

SObjectizer
C++ Actor Framework
ZeroMQ

For the higher level:

RxCpp

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Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers!

Kudos:

Friends at KDE and blueSystems

Dr Saša Malkov, Dr Zoltan Porkolab

MEAP – Manning Early Access Program

Functional Programming in C++
cukic.co/to/fp-in-cpp

Discount code:
meetingcpp

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