[m-users.] Best way to implement constants ?

Sean Charles (emacstheviking) objitsu at gmail.com
Fri Aug 18 18:26:33 AEST 2023


I am currently working on a simple 2D game engine using raylib, all good.
I'm implementing a tweening library based on -the- easing equations by Robert Penner.

The ones I need I have implemented, but I don't think I will need the complete set. On implementing the easeInBounce, easeOutBounce and easeInOutBounce, using this as my guide, the raylib Rust easing source: https://docs.rs/raylib/latest/src/raylib/ease.rs.html#242-256 , I noticed that there are some constants which I decided I didn't want to have to recalculate at run time.

In a game loop, anything you can do to save pointless repetition means more rendering time between frames.

This MIGHT be over eager optimisation I guess as all I am doing at the moment is a simple proof-of-concept for a 2D engine which I will then port over as the core of my transpiler IDE I have started.

Here is what I ended up for as the implementation of easeOutBounce, I decided to use the apostrophe naming rule so that the code reads like the source code, and I also did this because I wasn't really sure what those constants are for, I have a rough idea but I couldn't decide on an effectively communicable name for the source so I opted to call them what they do!


tween_(bounce_out, Time, Range, Duration) = V :-
    Percent = Time / Duration,
    ( if Percent < '1 / 2.75' then
        V = Range * n1 * Percent * Percent

    else if Percent < '2 / 2.75' then
        Td1 = Percent - '1.5 / 2.75',
        V = Range * ( n1 * Td1 * Td1 +0.75 )

    else if Percent < '2.5 / 2.75' then
        Td1 = Percent - '2.25 / 2.75',
        V = Range * ( n1 * Td1 * Td1 +0.9375 )
    else
        Td1 = Percent - '2.625 / 2.75',
        V = Range * ( n1 * Td1 * Td1 + 0.984375 )
    ),
    trace [io(!IO)] (
        io.format("bounce_out: %f\n", [f(V)], !IO)
    ).

The above code then make suse of the following constants, I read somewhere that small functions are automatically inlined (but not 100% sure I read it) so I explicitly made then inlined, the idea being that at runtime, referential transparency would be applied, like in Haskell...


    % Bounce constants.

:- pragma inline(func(n1/0)).
:- func n1 = (float::out) is det.
n1 = 7.5625.

:- pragma inline(func(d1/0)).
:- func d1 = (float::out) is det.
d1 = 2.75.

:- pragma inline(func('1.5 / 2.75'/0)).
:- func '1.5 / 2.75' = (float::out) is det.
'1.5 / 2.75' = 0.5454.

:- pragma inline(func('1 / 2.75'/0)).
:- func '1 / 2.75' = (float::out) is det.
'1 / 2.75' = 0.3636.

:- pragma inline(func('2 / 2.75'/0)).
:- func '2 / 2.75' = (float::out) is det.
'2 / 2.75' = 0.7272.

:- pragma inline(func('2.25 / 2.75'/0)).
:- func '2.25 / 2.75' = (float::out) is det.
'2.25 / 2.75' = 0.8181.

:- pragma inline(func('2.5 / 2.75'/0)).
:- func '2.5 / 2.75' = (float::out) is det.
'2.5 / 2.75' = 0.909.

:- pragma inline(func('2.625 / 2.75'/0)).
:- func '2.625 / 2.75' = (float::out) is det.
'2.625 / 2.75' = 0.9545.

My question is simple this: is what I have done 'ok' or is it a diabolical insult to all that as beautiful and holy in the Mercury world?
Could I have used some other aspect / feature of the language?

Thanks
Sean

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