GSoC Day 71

Implementing the Button that “rewinds state”

• We worked through this idea today whereby instead of a Wrapped list for state we have two lists. We can call them X and Y, and they’re represented as a Tuple of lists

• So one list (X) pops its last state and adds it to the Y list. When we “Undo” a function, we are taking the head of the “forward list” (X) and tacking that on to the list of “past states”. So the forward list is now one state behind what it was (ie Undo).
• For Redo, it is the opposite; we are taking one of the states that has passed and adding it back on to the forward list (to the top of the list). So that is a tuple of [(x:xs, y:ys)] -> [(y:xs, ys)].

Controls

• We drew the redo button on the same space as the step button because once you have popped the last “backwards” state in that list, you can’t go backwards anymore, so you can only go forwards. So we don’t need a backwards button, and can replace it with the forwards or “step” button.

Edge cases

• The two edge cases are where we are in Redo mode and there is no more history to redo and we need to create some. If y is not empty, we can keep redo-ing past states. So, hasFuture = [RedoButton] for not (null snd (state w))) If x is not empty, we can keep popping off the stack and revealing prior states (ie Undo). So hasHistory = [UndoButton] for not (null (tail (fst (state w)))) where the fst state is (x:xs). If we can’t do any more Undos, then we should be in the present state, so we return an empty list.

So the final button

• Looks something like this

• It’s next to the forward button so you can move forward and backwards until you run out of undos. Once you’re out of undos, the button changes to the step forward button.

Next…

• I’m implementing the slider that goes backwards in state.
• I also have a pull request I’m working on for another open source project so … fun times.

Also

• I tried to attend the Utah Haskell meeting tonight, but by the time I had completed my GSoC meeting, they had completed chapters 7 and 8. Oh well, Next month for sure. I’m currently on Algebraic Data Types, so I’m ahead in any case, but I’m always willing to go back and work through exercises again so they’re solid in my head. Never can learn too much Haskell!

So It’s back to work for me

• My apologies if I totally botched this explanation. I’m learning to be more correct and slow down and really understand things accurately, and of course, learning Haskell :) Always looking to get better.