% language=us

\startcomponent about-properties

\environment about-environment

\startchapter[title=Properties]

\startsection[title=Introduction]

Attributes are a nice extension to \TEX\ as they permits us to let information
travel with nodes. Internally they are represented as a linked list that
travels with a node. Because often a sequence of nodes has the same attributes,
this mechanism is quite efficient. Access is relatively fast too. Attributes
have a number and a value (also a number) which is fine. Of course one could
wish for them to be anything, but imagine the amount of management needed
in the engine if that were the case. Not only does saving and restoring (due to
grouping) at the \TEX\ end has no \LUA\ equivalent, an overload of the \LUA\
registry (the most natural interface for this) is not what we want. Of course
it is also not acceptable that (future) extensions slow down a run. In fact,
leaner and meaner should be the main objective.

At some point I thought that packing crucial information in a node using a bitset
would help to speed up some critical mechanisms (mostly fonts) but although
managing some 32 or 64 on||off states is possible in a more closed macro package,
in practice it would lead to conflicts in use. Also, an experimental
implementation of this idea was not faster than using attributes due to the fact
that manipulating bits also involves function calls that deal with setting,
resetting, masking and more. It also makes nodes larger and increases the memory
footprint.

So, when I discarded that idea, I moved to another one, which is associating a
\LUA\ table with each node (that makes sense). Again, an implementation where
some way a reference to a table is carried with a node, is non||trivial because
it has to go via the \LUA\ registry and will not be too efficient in terms of
speed. Also, when dealing with such information one wants to stay at the \LUA\
end and not cross the C||boundary too often.

Therefore a different approach was taken which involves a \LUA\ table. The main
issue with carrying information with a node is not to associate that information,
but to make sure that it gets cleaned up when a node is freed and copied when a
node is copied. All nodes that have attributes, also get properties.

\stopsection

\startsection[title=The implementation]

The implementation is rather minimalistic. This is because hard codes solutions
don't fit in the \LUATEX\ design philosophy. Also, there are many ways to use
such a mechanism so too much hard coded behaviour only complicates usage.

When a node is copied, we also copy the associated property entry. Normally its
type is \type {nil} or \type {table}. Depending on how you enabled this
mechanism, the table copy is shallow (just a reference to the same table), or we
assign en empty table with the original as metatable index. The second approach
as some more overhead.

When a new node is assigned, nothing extra is done with the properties. The
overhead is zero. This means that when you want to assign properties at the \LUA\
end, you also have to check if a node property already has a table and if not,
create one. The same is true for querying properties: you have to test if there
are properties at all.

When you use the \quote {direct} node model, you can directly access the property
table. But, with direct as well as wrapped nodes, you can also use setters and
getters. The property table has no metatable so you can add your own one for
alternative access if needed. In \CONTEXT\ you can best stay away from such hacks
and use the provided mechanisms because otherwise you get a performance hit.

\stopsection

\startsection[title=The \LUA\ interface]

The interface (in regular nodes as well as direct ones) is quite simple and
provides five functions:

\starttyping
set_properties_mode(boolean,boolean)
flush_properties_table()
get_properties_table()
getproperty(node_id)
setproperty(node_id,value)
\stoptyping

By default this mechanism is disabled so that when it's not used, there is no
overhead involved. With \type {set_properties_mode} the first argument determines
if you enable or disable this mechanism. The properties themselves are untouched.
When the second argument is \type {true} copied properties create a new table
with a metatable pointing to the original. You can flush all properties with
\type {flush_properties_table}.

You can access and set properties with \type {getproperty} and \type
{setproperty}. Instead you can also use the table approach, where you can reach
the table with \type {get_properties_table}. Keep in mind that the normal and
direct calls to this function return a different table.

\stopsection

\startsection[title=A few examples]

The following examples use \CONTEXT\ but apart from the calls to the \type
{context} namespace, they are rather generic. We have enabled the property
mechanism with:

\starttyping
set_properties_mode(true)
\stoptyping

We fill a box:

\startbuffer
\newbox\MyPropertyBox

\setbox\MyPropertyBox=\hbox{test}
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer \getbuffer

\startbuffer[common]
local list = tex.getbox("MyPropertyBox").list

local function start()
    context.starttabulate { "||||" }
    context.HL()
end

local function stop()
    context.HL()
    context.stoptabulate()
end

local function row(n,p)
    context.NC() context(tostring(n==p))
    context.NC() context(tostring(n))
    context.NC() context(tostring(p))
    context.NC() context.NR()
end
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer[common]

We will demonstrate the four access models. First regular properties
using functions:

\startbuffer[example]
for n in node.traverse(list) do
    node.setproperty(n,{ vif = n })
end
start()
for n in node.traverse(list) do
    row(n,node.getproperty(n).vif)
end
stop()
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer[example] {\ttxx\ctxluabuffer[common,example]}

We can use a table instead (in fact, we can use both approaches
mixed:

\startbuffer[example]
local n_properties = node.get_properties_table()

for n in node.traverse(list) do
    n_properties[n] = { vit = n }
    node.direct.setproperty(n,{ vdf = n })
end
start()
for n in node.traverse(list) do
    row(n,n_properties[n].vit)
end
stop()
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer[example] {\ttxx\ctxluabuffer[common,example]}

The direct method looks the same, apart from a cast to direct:

\startbuffer[example]
for n in node.direct.traverse(node.direct.todirect(list)) do
    node.direct.setproperty(n,{ vdf = n })
end
start()
for n in node.direct.traverse(node.direct.todirect(list)) do
    row(n,node.direct.getproperty(n).vdf)
end
stop()
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer[example] {\tt\ctxluabuffer[common,example]}

Again, we can use the table approach:

\startbuffer[example]
local d_properties = node.direct.get_properties_table()

for n in node.direct.traverse(node.direct.todirect(list)) do
    d_properties[n] = { vdt = n }
end
start()
for n in node.direct.traverse(node.direct.todirect(list)) do
    row(n,d_properties[n].vdt)
end
stop()
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer[example] {\tt\ctxluabuffer[common,example]}

\stoptext

