Eager Function Evaluation When Using Full Optimization Level

When the optimization level is OptimizationLevel::Full, the Engine assumes all functions to be pure and will eagerly evaluated all function calls with constant arguments, using the result to replace the call.

This also applies to all operators (which are implemented as functions).

// When compiling the following with OptimizationLevel::Full...

const DECISION = 1;
                            //    this condition is now eliminated because 'sign(DECISION) > 0'
if sign(DECISION) > 0       // <- is a call to the 'sign' and '>' functions, and they return 'true'
{
    print("hello!");        // <- this block is promoted to the parent level
} else {
    print("boo!");          // <- this block is eliminated because it is never reached
}

print("hello!");            // <- the above is equivalent to this
                            //    ('print' and 'debug' are handled specially)

Won’t this be dangerous?

Yes! Very!

// Nuclear silo control
if launch_nukes && president_okeyed {
    print("This is NOT a drill!");
    update_defcon(1);
    start_world_war(3);
    launch_all_nukes();
} else {
    print("This is a drill.  Thank you for your cooperation.");
}

In the script above (well… as if nuclear silos will one day be controlled by Rhai scripts), the functions update_defcon, start_world_war and launch_all_nukes will be evaluated during compilation because they have constant arguments.

The variables launch_nukes and president_okeyed are never checked, because the script actually has not yet been run! The functions are called during compilation. This is, obviously, not what you want.

Moral of the story: compile with an Engine that does not have any functions registered. Register functions AFTER compilation.

Why would I ever want to do this then?

Good question! There are two reasons:

  • A function call may result in cleaner code than the resultant value. In Rust, this would have been handled via a const function.

  • Evaluating a value to a custom type that has no representation in script.

// A complex function that returns a unique ID based on the arguments
let id = make_unique_id(123, "hello", true);

// The above is arguably clearer than:
//   let id = 835781293546; // generated from 123, "hello" and true

// A custom type that cannot be represented in script
let complex_obj = make_complex_obj(42);