Async::MergePoint.3pm

Langue: en

Autres versions - même langue

Version: 2009-03-31 (debian - 07/07/09)

Section: 3 (Bibliothèques de fonctions)

NAME

"Async::MergePoint" - resynchronise diverged control flow

SYNOPSIS

  use Async::MergePoint;
 
  my $merge = Async::MergePoint->new(
     needs => [ "leaves", "water" ],
 
     on_finished => sub {
        my %items = @_;
        # Make tea using $items{leaves} and $items{water}
     }
  );
 
  Kettle->boil(
     on_boiled => sub { $merge->done( "water", $_[0] ) }
  );
 
  Cupboard->get_tea_leaves(
     on_fetched => sub { $merge->done( "leaves", $_[0] ) }
  );
 
 

DESCRIPTION

Often in program logic, multiple different steps need to be taken that are independent of each other, but their total result is needed before the next step can be taken. In synchonous code, the usual approach is to do them sequentially.

An asynchronous or event-based program could do this, but if each step involves some IO idle time, better overall performance can often be gained by running the steps in parallel. A "Async::MergePoint" object can then be used to wait for all of the steps to complete, before passing the combined result of each step on to the next stage.

A merge point maintains a set of outstanding operations it is waiting on; these are arbitrary string values provided at the object's construction. Each time the "done()" method is called, the named item is marked as being complete. When all of the required items are so marked, the "on_finished" continuation is invoked.

When an item is marked as complete, a value can also be provided, which would contain the results of that step. The "on_finished" callback is passed a hash (in list form, rather than by reference) of the collected item values.

This module was originally part of the IO::Async distribution, but was removed under the inspiration of Pedro Melo's Async::Hooks distribution, because it doesn't itself contain anything IO-specific.

CONSTRUCTOR

$merge = Async::MergePoint->new( %params )

This function returns a new instance of a "Async::MergePoint" object. The %params hash takes the following keys:
needs => ARRAY
An array containing unique item names to wait on. The order of this array is not significant.
on_finished => CODE
CODE reference to the continuation for when the merge point becomes ready.

The "on_finished" continuation will be called when every key in the "needs" list has been notified by the "done()" method. It will be called as

  $on_finished->( %items )
 
 

where the %items hash will contain the item names that were waited on, and the values passed to the "done()" method for each one. Note that this is passed as a list, not as a HASH reference.

METHODS

$merge->done( $item, $value )

This method informs the merge point that the $item is now ready, and passes it a value to store, to be passed into the "on_finished" continuation. If this call gives the final remaining item being waited for, the "on_finished" continuation is called within it, and the method will not return until it has completed.

AUTHOR

Paul Evans <leonerd@leonerd.org.uk>