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- Metadata-Version: 2.0
- Name: Automat
- Version: 0.7.0
- Summary: Self-service finite-state machines for the programmer on the go.
- Home-page: https://github.com/glyph/Automat
- Author: Glyph
- Author-email: glyph@twistedmatrix.com
- License: MIT
- Keywords: fsm finite state machine automata
- Platform: UNKNOWN
- Classifier: Intended Audience :: Developers
- Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License
- Classifier: Operating System :: OS Independent
- Classifier: Programming Language :: Python
- Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 2
- Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7
- Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
- Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.3
- Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.4
- Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5
- Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6
- Provides-Extra: visualize
- Requires-Dist: attrs (>=16.1.0)
- Requires-Dist: six
- Provides-Extra: visualize
- Requires-Dist: graphviz (>0.5.1); extra == 'visualize'
- Requires-Dist: Twisted (>=16.1.1); extra == 'visualize'
-
-
- Automat
- =======
-
-
- .. image:: https://readthedocs.org/projects/automat/badge/?version=stable
- :target: http://automat.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
- :alt: Documentation Status
-
-
- .. image:: https://travis-ci.org/glyph/automat.svg?branch=master
- :target: https://travis-ci.org/glyph/automat
- :alt: Build Status
-
-
- .. image:: https://coveralls.io/repos/glyph/automat/badge.png
- :target: https://coveralls.io/r/glyph/automat
- :alt: Coverage Status
-
-
- Self-service finite-state machines for the programmer on the go.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Automat is a library for concise, idiomatic Python expression of finite-state
- automata (particularly deterministic finite-state transducers).
-
- Read more here, or on `Read the Docs <https://automat.readthedocs.io/>`_\ , or watch the following videos for an overview and presentation
-
- Overview and presentation by **Glyph Lefkowitz** at the first talk of the first Pyninsula meetup, on February 21st, 2017:
-
- .. image:: https://img.youtube.com/vi/0wOZBpD1VVk/0.jpg
- :target: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wOZBpD1VVk
- :alt: Glyph Lefkowitz - Automat - Pyninsula #0
-
-
- Presentation by **Clinton Roy** at PyCon Australia, on August 6th 2017:
-
- .. image:: https://img.youtube.com/vi/TedUKXhu9kE/0.jpg
- :target: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TedUKXhu9kE
- :alt: Clinton Roy - State Machines - Pycon Australia 2017
-
-
- Why use state machines?
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-
- Sometimes you have to create an object whose behavior varies with its state,
- but still wishes to present a consistent interface to its callers.
-
- For example, let's say you're writing the software for a coffee machine. It
- has a lid that can be opened or closed, a chamber for water, a chamber for
- coffee beans, and a button for "brew".
-
- There are a number of possible states for the coffee machine. It might or
- might not have water. It might or might not have beans. The lid might be open
- or closed. The "brew" button should only actually attempt to brew coffee in
- one of these configurations, and the "open lid" button should only work if the
- coffee is not, in fact, brewing.
-
- With diligence and attention to detail, you can implement this correctly using
- a collection of attributes on an object; ``has_water``\ , ``has_beans``\ ,
- ``is_lid_open`` and so on. However, you have to keep all these attributes
- consistent. As the coffee maker becomes more complex - perhaps you add an
- additional chamber for flavorings so you can make hazelnut coffee, for
- example - you have to keep adding more and more checks and more and more
- reasoning about which combinations of states are allowed.
-
- Rather than adding tedious 'if' checks to every single method to make sure that
- each of these flags are exactly what you expect, you can use a state machine to
- ensure that if your code runs at all, it will be run with all the required
- values initialized, because they have to be called in the order you declare
- them.
-
- You can read about state machines and their advantages for Python programmers
- in considerably more detail
- `in this excellent series of articles from ClusterHQ <https://clusterhq.com/blog/what-is-a-state-machine/>`_.
-
- What makes Automat different?
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-
- There are
- `dozens of libraries on PyPI implementing state machines <https://pypi.org/search/?q=finite+state+machine>`_.
- So it behooves me to say why yet another one would be a good idea.
-
- Automat is designed around this principle: while organizing your code around
- state machines is a good idea, your callers don't, and shouldn't have to, care
- that you've done so. In Python, the "input" to a stateful system is a method
- call; the "output" may be a method call, if you need to invoke a side effect,
- or a return value, if you are just performing a computation in memory. Most
- other state-machine libraries require you to explicitly create an input object,
- provide that object to a generic "input" method, and then receive results,
- sometimes in terms of that library's interfaces and sometimes in terms of
- classes you define yourself.
-
- For example, a snippet of the coffee-machine example above might be implemented
- as follows in naive Python:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- class CoffeeMachine(object):
- def brew_button(self):
- if self.has_water and self.has_beans and not self.is_lid_open:
- self.heat_the_heating_element()
- # ...
-
- With Automat, you'd create a class with a ``MethodicalMachine`` attribute:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- from automat import MethodicalMachine
-
- class CoffeeBrewer(object):
- _machine = MethodicalMachine()
-
- and then you would break the above logic into two pieces - the ``brew_button``
- *input*\ , declared like so:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @_machine.input()
- def brew_button(self):
- "The user pressed the 'brew' button."
-
- It wouldn't do any good to declare a method *body* on this, however, because
- input methods don't actually execute their bodies when called; doing actual
- work is the *output*\ 's job:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @_machine.output()
- def _heat_the_heating_element(self):
- "Heat up the heating element, which should cause coffee to happen."
- self._heating_element.turn_on()
-
- As well as a couple of *states* - and for simplicity's sake let's say that the
- only two states are ``have_beans`` and ``dont_have_beans``\ :
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @_machine.state()
- def have_beans(self):
- "In this state, you have some beans."
- @_machine.state(initial=True)
- def dont_have_beans(self):
- "In this state, you don't have any beans."
-
- ``dont_have_beans`` is the ``initial`` state because ``CoffeeBrewer`` starts without beans
- in it.
-
- (And another input to put some beans in:)
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @_machine.input()
- def put_in_beans(self):
- "The user put in some beans."
-
- Finally, you hook everything together with the ``upon`` method of the functions
- decorated with ``_machine.state``\ :
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
-
- # When we don't have beans, upon putting in beans, we will then have beans
- # (and produce no output)
- dont_have_beans.upon(put_in_beans, enter=have_beans, outputs=[])
-
- # When we have beans, upon pressing the brew button, we will then not have
- # beans any more (as they have been entered into the brewing chamber) and
- # our output will be heating the heating element.
- have_beans.upon(brew_button, enter=dont_have_beans,
- outputs=[_heat_the_heating_element])
-
- To *users* of this coffee machine class though, it still looks like a POPO
- (Plain Old Python Object):
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- >>> coffee_machine = CoffeeMachine()
- >>> coffee_machine.put_in_beans()
- >>> coffee_machine.brew_button()
-
- All of the *inputs* are provided by calling them like methods, all of the
- *outputs* are automatically invoked when they are produced according to the
- outputs specified to ``upon`` and all of the states are simply opaque tokens -
- although the fact that they're defined as methods like inputs and outputs
- allows you to put docstrings on them easily to document them.
-
- How do I get the current state of a state machine?
- --------------------------------------------------
-
- Don't do that.
-
- One major reason for having a state machine is that you want the callers of the
- state machine to just provide the appropriate input to the machine at the
- appropriate time, and *not have to check themselves* what state the machine is
- in. So if you are tempted to write some code like this:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- if connection_state_machine.state == "CONNECTED":
- connection_state_machine.send_message()
- else:
- print("not connected")
-
- Instead, just make your calling code do this:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- connection_state_machine.send_message()
-
- and then change your state machine to look like this:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @_machine.state()
- def connected(self):
- "connected"
- @_machine.state()
- def not_connected(self):
- "not connected"
- @_machine.input()
- def send_message(self):
- "send a message"
- @_machine.output()
- def _actually_send_message(self):
- self._transport.send(b"message")
- @_machine.output()
- def _report_sending_failure(self):
- print("not connected")
- connected.upon(send_message, enter=connected, [_actually_send_message])
- not_connected.upon(send_message, enter=not_connected, [_report_sending_failure])
-
- so that the responsibility for knowing which state the state machine is in
- remains within the state machine itself.
-
- Input for Inputs and Output for Outputs
- ---------------------------------------
-
- Quite often you want to be able to pass parameters to your methods, as well as
- inspecting their results. For example, when you brew the coffee, you might
- expect a cup of coffee to result, and you would like to see what kind of coffee
- it is. And if you were to put delicious hand-roasted small-batch artisanal
- beans into the machine, you would expect a *better* cup of coffee than if you
- were to use mass-produced beans. You would do this in plain old Python by
- adding a parameter, so that's how you do it in Automat as well.
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @_machine.input()
- def put_in_beans(self, beans):
- "The user put in some beans."
-
- However, one important difference here is that *we can't add any
- implementation code to the input method*. Inputs are purely a declaration of
- the interface; the behavior must all come from outputs. Therefore, the change
- in the state of the coffee machine must be represented as an output. We can
- add an output method like this:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @_machine.output()
- def _save_beans(self, beans):
- "The beans are now in the machine; save them."
- self._beans = beans
-
- and then connect it to the ``put_in_beans`` by changing the transition from
- ``dont_have_beans`` to ``have_beans`` like so:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- dont_have_beans.upon(put_in_beans, enter=have_beans,
- outputs=[_save_beans])
-
- Now, when you call:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- coffee_machine.put_in_beans("real good beans")
-
- the machine will remember the beans for later.
-
- So how do we get the beans back out again? One of our outputs needs to have a
- return value. It would make sense if our ``brew_button`` method returned the cup
- of coffee that it made, so we should add an output. So, in addition to heating
- the heating element, let's add a return value that describes the coffee. First
- a new output:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @_machine.output()
- def _describe_coffee(self):
- return "A cup of coffee made with {}.".format(self._beans)
-
- Note that we don't need to check first whether ``self._beans`` exists or not,
- because we can only reach this output method if the state machine says we've
- gone through a set of states that sets this attribute.
-
- Now, we need to hook up ``_describe_coffee`` to the process of brewing, so change
- the brewing transition to:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- have_beans.upon(brew_button, enter=dont_have_beans,
- outputs=[_heat_the_heating_element,
- _describe_coffee])
-
- Now, we can call it:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- >>> coffee_machine.brew_button()
- [None, 'A cup of coffee made with real good beans.']
-
- Except... wait a second, what's that ``None`` doing there?
-
- Since every input can produce multiple outputs, in automat, the default return
- value from every input invocation is a ``list``. In this case, we have both
- ``_heat_the_heating_element`` and ``_describe_coffee`` outputs, so we're seeing
- both of their return values. However, this can be customized, with the
- ``collector`` argument to ``upon``\ ; the ``collector`` is a callable which takes an
- iterable of all the outputs' return values and "collects" a single return value
- to return to the caller of the state machine.
-
- In this case, we only care about the last output, so we can adjust the call to
- ``upon`` like this:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- have_beans.upon(brew_button, enter=dont_have_beans,
- outputs=[_heat_the_heating_element,
- _describe_coffee],
- collector=lambda iterable: list(iterable)[-1]
- )
-
- And now, we'll get just the return value we want:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- >>> coffee_machine.brew_button()
- 'A cup of coffee made with real good beans.'
-
- If I can't get the state of the state machine, how can I save it to (a database, an API response, a file on disk...)
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- There are APIs for serializing the state machine.
-
- First, you have to decide on a persistent representation of each state, via the
- ``serialized=`` argument to the ``MethodicalMachine.state()`` decorator.
-
- Let's take this very simple "light switch" state machine, which can be on or
- off, and flipped to reverse its state:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- class LightSwitch(object):
- _machine = MethodicalMachine()
- @_machine.state(serialized="on")
- def on_state(self):
- "the switch is on"
- @_machine.state(serialized="off", initial=True)
- def off_state(self):
- "the switch is off"
- @_machine.input()
- def flip(self):
- "flip the switch"
- on_state.upon(flip, enter=off_state, outputs=[])
- off_state.upon(flip, enter=on_state, outputs=[])
-
- In this case, we've chosen a serialized representation for each state via the
- ``serialized`` argument. The on state is represented by the string ``"on"``\ , and
- the off state is represented by the string ``"off"``.
-
- Now, let's just add an input that lets us tell if the switch is on or not.
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @_machine.input()
- def query_power(self):
- "return True if powered, False otherwise"
- @_machine.output()
- def _is_powered(self):
- return True
- @_machine.output()
- def _not_powered(self):
- return False
- on_state.upon(query_power, enter=on_state, outputs=[_is_powered],
- collector=next)
- off_state.upon(query_power, enter=off_state, outputs=[_not_powered],
- collector=next)
-
- To save the state, we have the ``MethodicalMachine.serializer()`` method. A
- method decorated with ``@serializer()`` gets an extra argument injected at the
- beginning of its argument list: the serialized identifier for the state. In
- this case, either ``"on"`` or ``"off"``. Since state machine output methods can
- also affect other state on the object, a serializer method is expected to
- return *all* relevant state for serialization.
-
- For our simple light switch, such a method might look like this:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @_machine.serializer()
- def save(self, state):
- return {"is-it-on": state}
-
- Serializers can be public methods, and they can return whatever you like. If
- necessary, you can have different serializers - just multiple methods decorated
- with ``@_machine.serializer()`` - for different formats; return one data-structure
- for JSON, one for XML, one for a database row, and so on.
-
- When it comes time to unserialize, though, you generally want a private method,
- because an unserializer has to take a not-fully-initialized instance and
- populate it with state. It is expected to *return* the serialized machine
- state token that was passed to the serializer, but it can take whatever
- arguments you like. Of course, in order to return that, it probably has to
- take it somewhere in its arguments, so it will generally take whatever a paired
- serializer has returned as an argument.
-
- So our unserializer would look like this:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @_machine.unserializer()
- def _restore(self, blob):
- return blob["is-it-on"]
-
- Generally you will want a classmethod deserialization constructor which you
- write yourself to call this, so that you know how to create an instance of your
- own object, like so:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- @classmethod
- def from_blob(cls, blob):
- self = cls()
- self._restore(blob)
- return self
-
- Saving and loading our ``LightSwitch`` along with its state-machine state can now
- be accomplished as follows:
-
- .. code-block:: python
-
- >>> switch1 = LightSwitch()
- >>> switch1.query_power()
- False
- >>> switch1.flip()
- []
- >>> switch1.query_power()
- True
- >>> blob = switch1.save()
- >>> switch2 = LightSwitch.from_blob(blob)
- >>> switch2.query_power()
- True
-
- More comprehensive (tested, working) examples are present in ``docs/examples``.
-
- Go forth and machine all the state!
-
-
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