I'm trying to write a function that returns a memoized recursive function in Clojure, but I'm having trouble making the recursive function see its own memoized bindings. Is this because there is no var created? Also, why can't I use memoize on the local binding created with let?
This slightly unusual Fibonacci sequence maker that starts at a particular number is an example of what I wish I could do:
(defn make-fibo [y]
(memoize (fn fib [x] (if (< x 2)
y
(+ (fib (- x 1))
(fib (- x 2)))))))
(let [f (make-fibo 1)]
(f 35)) ;; SLOW, not actually memoized
Using with-local-vars
seems like the right approach, but it doesn't work for me either. I guess I can't close over vars?
(defn make-fibo [y]
(with-local-vars [fib (fn [x] (if (< x 2)
y
(+ (@fib (- x 1))
(@fib (- x 2)))))]
(memoize fib)))
(let [f (make-fibo 1)]
(f 35)) ;; Var null/null is unbound!?!
I could of course manually write a macro that creates a closed-over atom and manage the memoization myself, but I was hoping to do this without such hackery.
This seems to work:
(defn make-fibo [y]
(with-local-vars
[fib (memoize
(fn [x]
(if (< x 2)
y
(+ (fib (- x 2)) (fib (dec x))))))]
(.bindRoot fib @fib)
@fib))
with-local-vars
only provides thread-local bindings for the newly created Vars, which are popped once execution leaves the with-local-vars
form; hence the need for .bindRoot
.