calling plotting functions inside a reactor makes program unstoppable

[shriram]

If there's a big-bang window, and there's a plot being popped up by each iteration through the loop, there's no way to get to the Stop button to halt the computation.

[jpolitz]

Ditto calling reactors from within a plot of function-plot, which can cause other issues as well.

[jpolitz]

include plot-list
include image

fun wtf(x):
  reactor: init: x, on-tick: _ + 1, stop-when: _ > num-random(10), close-when-stop: true end.interact()
end

wtfp = function-plot(wtf)
draw-plot("WTF", wtfp)

[jpolitz]

I think we need more of a notion of a custodian here, because there isn't really a hook-up direction that lets the runtime tell the reactor to quit, just an interface that tells the reactor to quit and the runtime to continue.

[sorawee]

The issue that Joe raised is not about the chart/plot library specifically though. This would trigger the problem too:

fun wtf(x):
  reactor: init: x, on-tick: _ + 1, stop-when: _ > num-random(10), close-when-stop: true end.interact()
end

for each(i from range(1, 1000)) block:
  wtf(0)
  nothing
end

I have a version of the chart library that doesn't have the modal dialog. The problem is that when the chart library is called inside a reactor, the reactor would prevent the chart dialog to be seen. Maybe there's a way to fix, but even so, the original issue won't be solved: the stop button will still be hidden by big bang's modal dialog