How to handle buffer/module states?

[asmaloney]

It looks like each of the three frameworks handles a different set of buffer state checks. According to ACT-R:

There are several default queries which may be made for every buffer and a module may provide many more queries to which it will respond.

And here is how they are applied:

The first five are tests of the buffer itself and the module is not involved in that process. The rest, and any others which a module provides, are tests which are relayed to the module to get its response.

Here's what it looks like each framework supports:

state	ccm	pyactr	vanilla	note
buffer empty	✔️	✔️	✔️
buffer full	✔️	✔️	✔️
buffer failure	❌	❌	✔️
buffer requested	❌	❌	✔️
buffer unrequested	❌	❌	✔️
state free	❌	✔️	✔️
state busy	✔️	✔️	✔️
state error	✔️	✔️	✔️
error t	❌	❌	✔️	same as state error (pg. 230)
error nil	❌	❌	✔️	same as a query for – state error (pg. 230)

Notes:

• ccm ref: code
  • Buffer checks use Buffer.isEmpty() directly.
  • It looks like the state checks are only implemented on some modules. busy seems to be on several, but error is only on Memory and SOSVision.
• pyactr ref: table 2.1 page 24 of Computational Cognitive Modeling and Linguistic Theory book
  • these are all implemented on the Buffer
  • to check via module, there's a test() function
• vanilla ref: ACT-R manual pg.229-230

Should I implement the subset that is supported by all? Or allow some or all of these and warn/error for frameworks which don't support specific ones?

[asmaloney]

The "non-buffer" states in the table above seem to correspond to Module status from An Analysis and Comparison of ACT-R and Soar by John Laird.

[asmaloney]

Buffer State Checks

Buffer state checks are now handled in amod using the buffer_state keyword. It takes the form buffer_state <buffer> <state>.

Valid buffer states are currently empty & full. All frameworks support these.

Module State Checks

Module state matches now use the keyword module_state and take the form module_state <module> <state>.

Valid module states are busy, error, & free. Note that ccm does not handle module states properly in many cases.

Example

    match {
        goal [recall_list: nil nil ?list nil]
        buffer_state retrieval empty
        module_state memory free
    }