5.0 KiB
Asyncdispatch hard fork
Core differences between asyncdispatch and asyncdispatch2
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Unified callback type
CallbackFunc:Current version of asyncdispatch uses many types of callbacks:
proc ()is used in callSoon() callbacks and Future[T] completion callbacks.proc (fut: Future[T])is used in Future[T] completion callbacks.proc (fd: AsyncFD, bytesTransferred: Dword, errcode: OSErrorCode)is used in Windows IO completion callbacks.proc (fd: AsyncFD): boolis used in Unix IO event callbacks.
Such a large number of different types creates big problems in the storage and processing of callbacks and in interaction between callbacks. Lack of ability to pass custom user data to a callback also creates difficulties and inefficiency with passing custom, user-defined data needed for using closures (one more allocation).
To resolve this issue, we have introduced a unified callback type,
CallbackFunc:type CallbackFunc* = proc (arg: pointer = nil) {.gcsafe.}Also, one more type was introduced for the callback storage,
AsyncCallback:type AsyncCallback* = object function*: CallbackFunc udata*: pointer -
The order of Future[T] completion callbacks:
Current version of asyncdispatch processes Future[T] completion callbacks in reverse order, but asyncdispatch2 schedules callbacks in forward order: https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/7197
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Changed the behavior of OS descriptor event callbacks:
For some unknown reason, the current version of asyncdispatch uses seq[T] to hold a list of descriptor event listeners. However, in the asynchronous environment, there is no need for a list of event listeners. In asyncdispatch2, there is only one place for one READ listener and one place for one WRITE listener.
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Removed the default timeout value for the poll() procedure, which allows incorrect usage of asyncdispatch and produces 500-ms timeouts in correct usage.
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Changed the behavior of the scheduler in the poll() procedure, and fixed the following issues:
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Asyncdispatch2 no longer uses
epochTime(); instead, it uses the fastest time primitives for a specific OS,fastEpochTime(). Also, because MacOS supports only a millisecond resolution inkqueue, sub-millisecond resolution is not needed. For details, see https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/3909. -
Removed all IO primitives (
recv(),recvFrom(),connect(),accept(),send(), andsendTo()) from the public API, and moved all their functionality into Transports. -
Introduced an
addTimer()/removeTimer()callback interface. -
Introduced
removeReader()foraddReader()andremoveWriter()foraddWriter(). -
Changed the behavior of the
addReader(),addWriter(), andaddTimer()callbacks. Now, only the explicit removal of the callbacks must be supplied viaremoveReader(),removeWriter(), andremoveTimer(). -
Added the support for the cross-platform
sendfile()operation. -
Removed the expensive
AsyncEventand the support for hardware timers andaddProcess.addProcesswill be implemented as SubprocessTransport, while hardware-basedAsyncEventwill be renamed toThreadAsyncEvent. -
Added cheap synchronization primitives:
AsyncLock,AsyncEvent, andAsyncQueue[T].
Documentation
You can find more documentation, notes and examples in Wiki.
Installation
You can use Nim official package manager nimble to install asyncdispatch2. The most recent version of the library can be installed via:
$ nimble install https://github.com/status-im/nim-asyncdispatch2.git
TODO
- Pipe/Subprocess Transports.
- Multithreading Stream/Datagram servers
- Future[T] cancelation
License
Licensed under both of the following:
- Apache License, Version 2.0, (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
- MIT license: LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT