comparison doc/manual.tex @ 1648:bd7edca0aec1

Discuss a subtlety in the semantics of <dyn>
author Adam Chlipala <adam@chlipala.net>
date Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:04:09 -0500
parents b71cc5ec59b3
children 1a8f7d667c00
comparison
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1647:c815dabcfe3c 1648:bd7edca0aec1
1901 \mt{val} \; \mt{nextval} : \mt{sql\_sequence} \to \mt{transaction} \; \mt{int} \\ 1901 \mt{val} \; \mt{nextval} : \mt{sql\_sequence} \to \mt{transaction} \; \mt{int} \\
1902 \mt{val} \; \mt{setval} : \mt{sql\_sequence} \to \mt{int} \to \mt{transaction} \; \mt{unit} 1902 \mt{val} \; \mt{setval} : \mt{sql\_sequence} \to \mt{int} \to \mt{transaction} \; \mt{unit}
1903 \end{array}$$ 1903 \end{array}$$
1904 1904
1905 1905
1906 \subsection{XML} 1906 \subsection{\label{xml}XML}
1907 1907
1908 Ur/Web's library contains an encoding of XML syntax and semantic constraints. We make no effort to follow the standards governing XML schemas. Rather, XML fragments are viewed more as values of ML datatypes, and we only track which tags are allowed inside which other tags. The Ur/Web standard library encodes a very loose version of XHTML, where it is very easy to produce documents which are invalid XHTML, but which still display properly in all major browsers. The main purposes of the invariants that are enforced are first, to provide some documentation about the places where it would make sense to insert XML fragments; and second, to rule out code injection attacks and other abstraction violations related to HTML syntax. 1908 Ur/Web's library contains an encoding of XML syntax and semantic constraints. We make no effort to follow the standards governing XML schemas. Rather, XML fragments are viewed more as values of ML datatypes, and we only track which tags are allowed inside which other tags. The Ur/Web standard library encodes a very loose version of XHTML, where it is very easy to produce documents which are invalid XHTML, but which still display properly in all major browsers. The main purposes of the invariants that are enforced are first, to provide some documentation about the places where it would make sense to insert XML fragments; and second, to rule out code injection attacks and other abstraction violations related to HTML syntax.
1909 1909
1910 The basic XML type family has arguments respectively indicating the \emph{context} of a fragment, the fields that the fragment expects to be bound on entry (and their types), and the fields that the fragment will bind (and their types). Contexts are a record-based ``poor man's subtyping'' encoding, with each possible set of valid tags corresponding to a different context record. For instance, the context for the \texttt{<td>} tag is $[\mt{Dyn}, \mt{MakeForm}, \mt{Tr}]$, to indicate nesting inside a \texttt{<tr>} tag with the ability to nest \texttt{<form>} and \texttt{<dyn>} tags (see below). Contexts are maintained in a somewhat ad-hoc way; the only definitive reference for their meanings is the types of the tag values in \texttt{basis.urs}. The arguments dealing with field binding are only relevant to HTML forms. 1910 The basic XML type family has arguments respectively indicating the \emph{context} of a fragment, the fields that the fragment expects to be bound on entry (and their types), and the fields that the fragment will bind (and their types). Contexts are a record-based ``poor man's subtyping'' encoding, with each possible set of valid tags corresponding to a different context record. For instance, the context for the \texttt{<td>} tag is $[\mt{Dyn}, \mt{MakeForm}, \mt{Tr}]$, to indicate nesting inside a \texttt{<tr>} tag with the ability to nest \texttt{<form>} and \texttt{<dyn>} tags (see below). Contexts are maintained in a somewhat ad-hoc way; the only definitive reference for their meanings is the types of the tag values in \texttt{basis.urs}. The arguments dealing with field binding are only relevant to HTML forms.
1911 $$\begin{array}{l} 1911 $$\begin{array}{l}
2054 2054
2055 $$\begin{array}{l} 2055 $$\begin{array}{l}
2056 \mt{val} \; \mt{dyn} : \mt{ctx} ::: \{\mt{Unit}\} \to \mt{use} ::: \{\mt{Type}\} \to \mt{bind} ::: \{\mt{Type}\} \to [\mt{ctx} \sim [\mt{Dyn}]] \Rightarrow \mt{unit} \\ 2056 \mt{val} \; \mt{dyn} : \mt{ctx} ::: \{\mt{Unit}\} \to \mt{use} ::: \{\mt{Type}\} \to \mt{bind} ::: \{\mt{Type}\} \to [\mt{ctx} \sim [\mt{Dyn}]] \Rightarrow \mt{unit} \\
2057 \hspace{.1in} \to \mt{tag} \; [\mt{Signal} = \mt{signal} \; (\mt{xml} \; ([\mt{Dyn}] \rc \mt{ctx}) \; \mt{use} \; \mt{bind})] \; ([\mt{Dyn}] \rc \mt{ctx}) \; [] \; \mt{use} \; \mt{bind} 2057 \hspace{.1in} \to \mt{tag} \; [\mt{Signal} = \mt{signal} \; (\mt{xml} \; ([\mt{Dyn}] \rc \mt{ctx}) \; \mt{use} \; \mt{bind})] \; ([\mt{Dyn}] \rc \mt{ctx}) \; [] \; \mt{use} \; \mt{bind}
2058 \end{array}$$ 2058 \end{array}$$
2059
2060 The semantics of \cd{<dyn>} tags is somewhat subtle. When the signal associated with such a tag changes value, the associated subtree of the HTML page is recreated. Some properties of the subtree, such as attributes and client-side widget values, are specified explicitly in the signal value, so these may be counted on to remain the same after recreation. Other properties, like focus and cursor position within textboxes, are \emph{not} specified by signal values, and these properties will be \emph{reset} upon subtree regeneration. Furthermore, user interaction with widgets may not work properly during regeneration. For instance, clicking a button while it is being regenerated may not trigger its \cd{onclick} event code.
2061
2062 Currently, the only way to avoid undesired resets is to avoid regeneration of containing subtrees. There are two main strategies for achieving that goal. First, when changes to a subtree can be confined to CSS classes of tags, the \texttt{dynClass} pseudo-attribute may be used instead (see Section \ref{xml}), as it does not regenerate subtrees. Second, a single \cd{<dyn>} tag may be broken into multiple tags, in a way that makes finer-grained dependency structure explicit. This latter strategy can avoid ``spurious'' regenerations that are not actually required to achieve the intended semantics.
2059 2063
2060 Transactions can be run on the client by including them in attributes like the $\mt{Onclick}$ attribute of $\mt{button}$, and GUI widgets like $\mt{ctextbox}$ have $\mt{Source}$ attributes that can be used to connect them to sources, so that their values can be read by code running because of, e.g., an $\mt{Onclick}$ event. 2064 Transactions can be run on the client by including them in attributes like the $\mt{Onclick}$ attribute of $\mt{button}$, and GUI widgets like $\mt{ctextbox}$ have $\mt{Source}$ attributes that can be used to connect them to sources, so that their values can be read by code running because of, e.g., an $\mt{Onclick}$ event.
2061 2065
2062 \subsubsection{Remote Procedure Calls} 2066 \subsubsection{Remote Procedure Calls}
2063 2067