State

States together with the Component.wait() method provide a powerful way of process interaction.

A state will have a certain value at a given time. In its simplest form a component can then wait for a specific value of a state. Once that value is reached, the component will be resumed.

Definition is simple, like dooropen=sim.State('dooropen'). The default initial value is False, meaning the door is closed.

Now we can say

dooropen.set()

to open the door.

If we want a person to wait for an open door, we could say

yield self.wait(dooropen)

If we just want at most one person to enter, we say dooropen.trigger(max=1).

We can obtain the current value by just calling the state, like in

print('door is ',('open' if dooropen() else 'closed'))

Alternatively, we can get the current value with the get method

print('door is ',('open' if dooropen.get() else 'closed'))

The value of a state is automatically monitored in the state.value level monitor.

All components waiting for a state are in a salabim queue, called waiters().

States can be used also for non values other than bool type. E.g.

light=sim.State('light', value='red')
...
light.state.set('green')

Or define a int/float state

level=sim.State('level', value=0)
...
level.set(level()+10)

States have a number of monitors:

value, where all the values are collected over time
waiters().length
waiters().length_of_stay

Process interaction with wait()

A component can wait for a state to get a certain value. In its most simple form

yield self.wait(dooropen)

Once the dooropen state is True, the component will continue.

As with request() it is possible to set a timeout with fail_at or fail_delay

yield self.wait(dooropen, fail_delay=10)
if self.failed():
    print('impatient ...')

In the above example we tested for a state to be True.

There are three ways to test for a value:

Scalar testing

It is possible to test for a certain value

yield self.wait((light, 'green'))

Or more states at once

yield self.wait((light, 'green'), night)  # honored as soon as light is green OR it's night
yield self.wait((light, 'green'), (light, 'yellow'))  # honored as soon is light is green OR yellow

It is also possible to wait for all conditions to be satisfied, by adding all=True:

yield self.wait((light,'green'), enginerunning, all=True)  # honored as soon as light is green AND engine is running

Evaluation testing

Here, we use a string containing an expression that can evaluate to True or False. This is done by specifying at least one $ in the test-string. This $ will be replaced at run time by state.value(), where state is the state under test. Here are some examples

yield self.wait((light, '$ in ("green","yellow")'))
    # if at run time light.value() is 'green', test for eval(state.value() in ("green,"yellow")) ==> True
yield self.wait((level, '$ < 30'))
    # if at run time level.value() is 50, test for eval(state.value() < 30) ==> False

During the evaluation, self refers to the component under test and state to the state under test. E.g.

self.limit = 30
yield self.wait((level, 'self.limit >= $'))
    # if at run time level.value() is 10, test for eval(self.limit >= state.get()) ==> True, so honored

Function testing

This is a more complicated but also more versatile way of specifying the honor-condition. In that case, a function is required to specify the condition. The function needs to accept three arguments:

x = state.get()
component component under test
state under test

E.g.:

yield self.wait((light, lambda x, component, state x: in ('green', 'yellow'))
    # x is light.get()
yield self.wait((level, lambda x, *_: x >= 30))
    # x is level.get(), other two parameters are 'dummied'

And, of course, it is possible to define a function

def levelreached(value, component, state):
    return value < component.limit

...

self.limit = 30
yield self.wait((level, levelreached))

Combination of testing methods

It is possible to mix scalar, evaluation and function testing. And it’s also possible to specify all=True in any case.