Singleton python generator? Or, pickle a python generator?

Question

I am using the following code, with nested generators, to iterate over a text document and return training examples using get_train_minibatch(). I would like to

Answer 1

The following code should do more-or-less what you want. The first class defines something that acts like a file but can be pickled. (When you unpickle it, it re-opens the file, and seeks to the location where it was when you pickled it). The second class is an iterator that generates word windows.

class PickleableFile(object):
    def __init__(self, filename, mode='rb'):
        self.filename = filename
        self.mode = mode
        self.file = open(filename, mode)
    def __getstate__(self):
        state = dict(filename=self.filename, mode=self.mode,
                     closed=self.file.closed)
        if not self.file.closed:
            state['filepos'] = self.file.tell()
        return state
    def __setstate__(self, state):
        self.filename = state['filename']
        self.mode = state['mode']
        self.file = open(self.filename, self.mode)
        if state['closed']: self.file.close()
        else: self.file.seek(state['filepos'])
    def __getattr__(self, attr):
        return getattr(self.file, attr)

class WordWindowReader:
    def __init__(self, filenames, window_size):
        self.filenames = filenames
        self.window_size = window_size
        self.filenum = 0
        self.stream = None
        self.filepos = 0
        self.prevwords = []
        self.current_line = []

    def __iter__(self):
        return self

    def next(self):
        # Read through files until we have a non-empty current line.
        while not self.current_line:
            if self.stream is None:
                if self.filenum >= len(self.filenames):
                    raise StopIteration
                else:
                    self.stream = PickleableFile(self.filenames[self.filenum])
                    self.stream.seek(self.filepos)
                    self.prevwords = []
            line = self.stream.readline()
            self.filepos = self.stream.tell()
            if line == '':
                # End of file.
                self.stream = None
                self.filenum += 1
                self.filepos = 0
            else:
                # Reverse line so we can pop off words.
                self.current_line = line.split()[::-1]

        # Get the first word of the current line, and add it to
        # prevwords.  Truncate prevwords when necessary.
        word = self.current_line.pop()
        self.prevwords.append(word)
        if len(self.prevwords) > self.window_size:
            self.prevwords = self.prevwords[-self.window_size:]

        # If we have enough words, then return a word window;
        # otherwise, go on to the next word.
        if len(self.prevwords) == self.window_size:
            return self.prevwords
        else:
            return self.next()