polyton

A helper to deal with singletons

• Usage
• PolytonFactory API
• Instance Polyton API
• Static Polyton API
• License

Usage

A Polyton is an ordered list of singletons, and is itself a singleton, so that you can create and manage singletons straightforwardly.

PolytonFactory takes 4 arguments. The first one is a Type constructor for all the underlying singletons. The second one is an array of hints for the types of arguments that will be used to create the singletons (or a function generating a unique key for different set of arguments, the hints being just used to generate such a function internally). The third one is optional and provides methods to modify the arguments passed to the underlying singletons. The fourth one provides options to apply on the resulting polyton.

In the following example, 3 plane equations are created as singletons in one go. They are grouped as a Polyton in a specific order.

import {PolytonFactory} from 'polyton';
 
class PlaneEquation { // Type for all the singletons within the Polyton
  constructor (a, b, c, d) {
    this.a = a;
    this.b = b;
    this.c = c;
    this.d = d;
  }
  hasPoint (x, y, z) {
    return Math.abs(this.a * x + this.b * y + this.c * z + this.d) < 1e-10;
  }
}
 
const Polyton = PolytonFactory(PlaneEquation, ['literal', 'literal',
  'literal', 'literal']); // Create a Polyton type as list of PlaneEquations
  // initialized from lists of literals
 
const planes = Polyton( // Instantiate an actual polyton
  [0, 0, 1, 0], // xOy
  [0, 1, 0, 0], // xOz
  [1, 0, 0, 0] // yOz
);
const Origin = [0, 0, 0];
 
// Now you can recall plane equations using only the arguments though they
// are not in scope
 
planes.get(1, 0, 0, 0).hasPoint(...Origin); // true;
planes.get(0, 1, 0, 0).hasPoint(...Origin); // true;
planes.get(0, 0, 1, 0).hasPoint(...Origin); // true;
expect(() => planes.get(1, 0, 0, 3).hasPoint(...Origin)).to.throw(TypeError,`Cannot read property 'hasPoint' of undefined`);
 
expect(Polyton.get(
  [0, 0, 1, 0], // xOy
  [0, 1, 0, 0], // xOz
  [1, 0, 0, 0] // yOz
)).to.equal(planes);
expect(Polyton.get(
  [1, 0, 0, 0], // yOz
  [0, 1, 0, 0], // xOz
  [0, 0, 1, 0] // xOy
)).not.to.equal(planes);

PolytonFactory API

• PolytonFactory(Class, classHintsOrKeyfunc, classOptions, polytonOptions): Returns a Polyton constructor that will generate singletons of class Class.
• classHintsOrKeyfunc indicates how to process the initializing arguments for each singletons. See package keyfunc for a detailed discussion on how to present this argument.
• classOptions is optional. It is a literal object with the possible following properties:

{
  preprocess (convertedArgs) { // Array of Arrays
 
    // convertedArgs result from a first preprocessing on a per type basis;
    // See customArgs for option customArgs:convert
 
    // Do whatever you want on it so that in the end its subarrays contain only
    // arguments of the correct type and order to initialize a Class object.
 
    // 'this' is meaningless in this context, as no instance is either created
    // or remembered yet.
 
    return preprocessedArgs; // Array of Arrays
  },
 
  postprocess (preprocessedArgs) { // Array of Arrays
 
    // Final postprocessing
    // Use 'this' to reference the created or remembered Class instance
 
  }, // Returns nothing
 
  spread (arg) { // arg has type Class
    // Do some transformation
    return arrayOfConvertibleObjects; // Spread again if contains spreadable types
  },
 
  shallowSpread (arg) { // arg has type Class
    // Do some transformation
    return arrayOfConvertibleObjects; // No further spreading will occur
  },
 
  customArgs: [ // CustomArgs that are not converted are NOT used to initialize
    // Class objects, but they are still potentially reduced and/or postprocessed
    // so that the instance created or recalled may be tweaked/updated
    [Type, {
      convert (arg) { // arg has type Type
 
        // Do some transformation
 
        return convertedArg // So that it is a proper input for Class ctor
      },
 
      reduce (args) { // Arrays of all args of type Type
 
        // args is not convertedArgs but the Type args you passed to Polyton
        // Reduce them here to something
 
        return reducedArg; // May be of type Type or not
      },
 
      spread (arg) { // arg has type Type
        // Do some transformation
        return arrayOfConvertibleObjects; // Spread again if contains spreadable types
      },
 
      shallowSpread (arg) { // arg has type Type
        // Do some transformation
        return arrayOfConvertibleObjects; // No further spreading will occur
      },
 
      postprocess (reducedArg || arg) { // !convertedArg, !preprocessedArg
 
        // Use 'this' to reference the created or remembered Class instance
 
      } // Returns nothing
    }],
 
    [Type2, etc...}],
 
    etc...
  ]
}

• polytonOptions: It is a literal object with the same options as above plus 4 others. The identical options are applied at the level of the BasePolyton singleton that wraps a collection of singletons of type Class. The same rules apply to this singleton. The four other options are:

{
  unordered: true || false || undefined, // If true, the order of Class singletons doesn't matter
 
  unique: true || false || undefined, // If true, identical Class singletons
  // resulting from the sequence of init args are collapsed to one instance
 
  properties: { // Extend polyton with custom properties
    // This is mostly used to access the properties of the Class singletons in one go
    prop1: {
      value: 42,
    },
 
    prop2: {
      get () {
        return this.reduce(doStuff, init); // Reduce all Class singletons to some meaningful piece of data
      },
    },
 
    props: {
      get () {
        return this.map(el => el.prop); // Collect all prop property from Class singletons
      },
    },
  },
 
  extend: {
    method (a, b, c) {
      this.forEach(el => doStuff(el, a, b, c)); // Apply method to all Class singletons
    },
  },
}

Instance Polyton API

• Polyton(...args): Creates a Polyton from a list of arrays of arguments. Each array contains the arguments to create an invidual underlying singleton.
• instance.length: Returns the number of singletons within the polyton.
• instance.elements: Returns a copy of the array of singletons within the polyton.
• prototype.get(...args): args are the arguments from which some singleton was initialized; this method returns the corresponding singleton.
• prototype.forEach(func): Loops over all singletons within the polyton.
• prototype.map(func): Returns an array mapping all singletons within the polyton with the function func.
• prototype.reduce(func): Returns the reduced value obtained from reducing the array of singletons within the polyton with function func.
• prototype.concat(...args): Returns the concatenated Polyton from args. Args as already existing Polytons is allowed.
• prototype.some(func): Returns true if one singleton validates func.
• prototype.every(func): Returns true if all singletons validate func.
• prototype.forEachPair(func): Loops over all singletons within the polyton, applying func to all possible pairs of singletons, [a, b] being considered distinct from [b, a], excluding [a, a].
• prototype.forEachTriangular(func): Loops over all singletons within the polyton, applying func to all possible pairs of singletons, [a, b] being identified with [b, a], excluding [a, a].
• prototype.mapPair(func): Loops over all singletons within the polyton, applying func to all possible pairs of singletons, [a, b] being considered distinct from [b, a], excluding [a, a]. Returns array of results.
• prototype.mapTriangular(func): Loops over all singletons within the polyton, applying func to all possible pairs of singletons, [a, b] being identified with [b, a], excluding [a, a]. Returns array of results.

Static Polyton API

• get(...args): Given the arguments that were used to create it, returns the corresponding Polyton (not to be confused with prototype.get method that returns individual Singletons). Don't use in your preprocessing methods as you would enter an infinite loop.
• safeGet(...args): Less intuitive and powerful than the above get, but safe to use in preprocessing methods as args is never preprocessed. The drawback is that you can't use shortcuts any more to build args. You have actually to know the exact internal indexation scheme for your singletons and pass the right indices to the function.

License

polyton is MIT licensed.

© 2016-2017 Jason Lenoble