Functions vs rules #982
Functions vs rules #982
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krishnangovindraj
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| == Partial evaluation of functions | ||
| Although the split between arguments and returned concepts is a reasonable consequence of | ||
| having the user think about the computation explicitly, it's less declarative than the rules | ||
| where the planner would infer which role-players of a relation should be bound before evaluating the rules. | ||
| In the future, we hope to introduce "partial functions" where the planner may choose to leave some | ||
| it to the function to bind some of the arguments instead of requiring them as outputs. |
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I'd generalize this to "Future functions" to discuss partially bound functions and/or leaving args unbound, both of which would address the need for as many functions right?
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But good idea to keep it short like you have
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Can't decide. I'm calling them contextually bound functions for now.
| but it does bring us to the next section. | ||
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| === What functions can't do (yet) | ||
| To the best of our knowledge, TypeDB in its current state can't do "arbitrarily large" models. |
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Delete 'best of our knowledge', we should make a claim as we're the experts
| Understandable, since this is the case with most programming languages - | ||
| but it does bring us to the next section. | ||
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| === What functions can't do (yet) |
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I think mentioning turing completeness somewhere here might be good is a relatable way to have it thought about IMO.
Aren't we turing complete if we can generate nats() though?
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I think a push-down automaton might be able to generate nats.
Goal
Document the similarities and differences between 2.x rules and 3.x functions, and explain how they should be equally expressive while being slightly more flexible.