[Swift-devel] could we set the job sequence without a file dependency?

[Ian Foster]

>
>> - The artificial data dependency is a real pain to write if you  
>> have to do it
>> a lot
>
> disagree

This was the case in PCN when people were trying to do printf-like  
output. So you introduced a version of printf that bound a variable  
when it was done, and then wrote something like:

	printf("Line 1",X);
	wait(X) -> printf("Line 2", Y);
	wait(Y) -> ...

which is already a bit messy. But if you had some procedures that you  
wanted to call, say print-a-bunch() and print-a-bunch-more(), then you  
had to modify them to produce dummy variables, and things got really  
messy relative to:

seq {
	printf("Line 1");
	print-a-bunch();
	printf("Line 2");
	...
}

BUT -- maybe we don't really do output like this in Swift programs (I  
don't think it is common, is it)?

Enough of my reminiscing ...

> The sequencing-for-debugging thing is something I think that external
> dependencies is perhaps wrong for. Not sure if putting an operator  
> into
> the language is the right way - we've talked about different
> execution modes too, which might be a better thing to do.

I agree.