coroutines and arguments

[Benoit Germain <bgermain@...>]

Hi,

I have setup a system in which several tasks are run as coroutines so that
they can interrupt their processing when they want. All tasks share the same
function, but of course there is one coroutine instance per task. Now, here
comes my problem: The function being used as a coroutine needs arguments,
whose values change each time the coroutine is called (typically, a system
date, that must be the same for all tasks)
Unfortunately, the following sample will not work as (I would have)
expected:

function f(n)
	while true
	do
		print ( n )
		coroutine . yield ( )
	end
end

c = coroutine . create ( f )

f(1)
f(2)

-->
nil
nil


Seeing, I got a closer look at the manual. From what I have seen, arguments
can be only provided at the coroutine creation. Calling a coroutine with any
arguments will always end up with the function using the initial argument,
those provided when calling the coroutine being ignored. Therefore, what I
want to do can be achieved by providing a table at coroutine creation, and
modifying its contents each time I call the coroutine:

function f(t)
	while true
	do
		print ( t[1] )
		coroutine . yield ( )
	end
end

args={}
c = coroutine . create ( f ,args)

args[1] = 33
f()
args[1] = 44
f()

-->
33
44

However,  it is not very elegant, and prevents usage of coroutines as normal
functions.
Isn't it possible instead, each time the coroutine resumes, to store its
current arguments in the argument slots of the function being coroutined ?
In the event it is possible, is there a way, given a function, to know how
many arguments it is expecting, in order to adjust what is provided to the
coroutine to what the function is expecting ?



Regards,

Benoit.