From: progcat@...
Date: 2008-06-08T07:03:44+09:00
Subject: Re: storing values for later use


Thanks for the quick reply.

I have no desire to store values except in the class while my program
is running.

f(a,b,c) returns a 1000 elemeent array.   I want to call the function
with a=1,b=2 and c = -3).  It takes ten seconds for it to call the c
function and fill the array.

I later call the same functions with different values of a,b and c.

Then I decide I want the values of the function with a=1, b=2 and c =
-3 again.    I want
to avoid calling C again and recalculating the numbers I already have
calculated.

example: (sorry if this is not "quite" ruby, I am still learning!)
  funcname = "thiscfunction"
  x = myclass.callc(funcname,1,2,3)[55]
       #first call, get all values for a=1,b=2,c=3 and return the
55'th
  y = myclass.callc(funcname,3,2,1)[1] # new args, so C has to be
called again
  z = myclass.callc(funcname,1,2,3)[11]
      # second call with 1,2,3, don't call C again just lookup and the
11'th value

The program has many function and argument combinations (they are
defined at runtime)
but chances are I will reuse them many times withing the program, so
this litterally could make my program thousands of times faster.

Sorry if i did a poor job in explaining this.

Thanks,
Tom
Tom

> Tom,
>
> not quite sure whether I understood what you're after, but it might be
> Marshalling: