AnyEvent-Future
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my $url = ...;
my $f = as_future_cb {
my ( $done_cb ) = @_;
http_get $url, $done_cb;
};
This could of course be easily wrapped by a convenient function to
return futures:
sub http_get_future
{
my ( $url, @args ) = @_;
as_future_cb {
my ( $done_cb ) = @_;
http_get $url, @args, $done_cb;
}
}
Using Futures as enhanced CondVars
While at first glance it may appear that a Future instance is much like
an AnyEvent::CondVar, the greater set of convergence methods (such as
needs_all or needs_any), and the various utility functions (in
Future::Utils) makes it possible to write the same style of code in a
more concise or powerful way.
For example, rather than using the CondVar begin and end methods, a set
of CondVar-returning functions can be converted into Futures, combined
using needs_all, and converted back to a CondVar again:
my $cv = Future->needs_all(
Future::AnyEvent->from_cv( FUNC1() ),
Future::AnyEvent->from_cv( FUNC2() ),
...
)->as_cv;
my @results = $cv->recv;
This would become yet more useful if, instead of functions that return
CondVars, we were operating on functions that return Futures directly.
Because the needs_all will cancel any still-pending futures the moment
one of them failed, we get a nice neat cancellation of outstanding work
if one of them fails, in a way that would be much harder without the
Futures. For example, using the http_get_future function from above:
my $cv = Future->needs_all(
http_get_future( "http://url-1" ),
http_get_future( "http://url-2" ),
http_get_future( "https://url-third/secret" ),
)->as_cv;
my @results = $cv->recv;
In this case, the moment any of the HTTP GET functions fails, the ones
that are still pending are all cancelled (by dropping their
cancellation watcher object) and the overall recv call throws an
exception.
Of course, there is no need to convert the outermost Future into a
CondVar; the full set of waiting semantics are implemented on these
instances, so instead you may simply call get on it to achieve the same
effect:
my $f = Future->needs_all(
http_get_future( "http://url-1" ),
...
);
my @results = $f->get;
This has other side advantages, such as the list-valued semantics of
failures that can provide additional information besides just the error
message, and propagation of cancellation requests.
TODO
* Consider whether or not it would be considered "evil" to inject a
new method into AnyEvent::CondVar; namely by doing
sub AnyEvent::CondVar::as_future { AnyEvent::Future->from_cv( shift ) }
AUTHOR
Paul Evans <leonerd@leonerd.org.uk>
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