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Revision: 1.12
Committed: Wed Aug 17 22:03:02 2011 UTC (12 years, 10 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.11: +4 -5 lines
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# Content
1 =head1 NAME
2
3 AE - simpler/faster/newer/cooler AnyEvent API
4
5 =head1 SYNOPSIS
6
7 use AnyEvent; # not AE
8
9 # file handle or descriptor readable
10 my $w = AE::io $fh, 0, sub { ... };
11
12 # one-shot or repeating timers
13 my $w = AE::timer $seconds, 0, sub { ... }; # once
14 my $w = AE::timer $seconds, $interval, sub { ... }; # repeated
15
16 print AE::now; # prints current event loop time
17 print AE::time; # think Time::HiRes::time or simply CORE::time.
18
19 # POSIX signal
20 my $w = AE::signal TERM => sub { ... };
21
22 # child process exit
23 my $w = AE::child $pid, sub {
24 my ($pid, $status) = @_;
25 ...
26 };
27
28 # called when event loop idle (if applicable)
29 my $w = AE::idle sub { ... };
30
31 my $w = AE::cv; # stores whether a condition was flagged
32 $w->send; # wake up current and all future recv's
33 $w->recv; # enters "main loop" till $condvar gets ->send
34 # use a condvar in callback mode:
35 $w->cb (sub { $_[0]->recv });
36
37
38 =head1 DESCRIPTION
39
40 This module documents the new simpler AnyEvent API.
41
42 The rationale for the new API is that experience with L<EV> shows that
43 this API actually "works", despite its lack of extensibility, leading to
44 a shorter, easier and faster API.
45
46 The main differences from AnyEvent is that function calls are used
47 instead of method calls, and that no named arguments are used.
48
49 This makes calls to watcher creation functions really short, which can
50 make a program more readable despite the lack of named parameters.
51 Function calls also allow more static type checking than method calls, so
52 many mistakes are caught at compile-time with this API.
53
54 Also, some backends (Perl and EV) are so fast that the method call
55 overhead is very noticeable (with EV it increases the execution time five-
56 to six-fold, with Perl the method call overhead is about a factor of two).
57
58 Note that the C<AE> API is an alternative to, not the future version of,
59 the AnyEvent API. Both APIs can be used interchangeably and there are
60 no plans to "switch", so if in doubt, feel free to use the L<AnyEvent>
61 API in new code.
62
63 As the AE API is complementary, not everything in the AnyEvent API is
64 available, and you still need to use AnyEvent for the finer stuff. Also,
65 you should not C<use AE> directly, C<use AnyEvent> will provide the AE
66 namespace.
67
68 At the moment, these functions will become slower then their method-call
69 counterparts when using L<AnyEvent::Strict> or L<AnyEvent::Debug>::wrap.
70
71 =head2 FUNCTIONS
72
73 This section briefly describes the alternative watcher
74 constructors. Semantics are not described here; please
75 refer to the L<AnyEvent> manpage for the details.
76
77 =over 4
78
79 =cut
80
81 package AE;
82
83 use AnyEvent (); # BEGIN { AnyEvent::common_sense }
84
85 our $VERSION = $AnyEvent::VERSION;
86
87 =item $w = AE::io $fh_or_fd, $watch_write, $cb
88
89 Creates an I/O watcher that listens for read events (C<$watch_write>
90 false) or write events (C<$watch_write> is true) on the file handle or
91 file descriptor C<$fh_or_fd>.
92
93 The callback C<$cb> is invoked as soon and as long as I/O of the type
94 specified by C<$watch_write>) can be done on the file handle/descriptor.
95
96 Example: wait until STDIN becomes readable.
97
98 $stdin_ready = AE::io *STDIN, 0, sub { scalar <STDIN> };
99
100 Example: wait until STDOUT becomes writable and print something.
101
102 $stdout_ready = AE::io *STDOUT, 1, sub { print STDOUT "woaw\n" };
103
104 =item $w = AE::timer $after, $interval, $cb
105
106 Creates a timer watcher that invokes the callback C<$cb> after at least
107 C<$after> second have passed (C<$after> can be negative or C<0>).
108
109 If C<$interval> is C<0>, then the callback will only be invoked once,
110 otherwise it must be a positive number of seconds that specifies the
111 interval between successive invocations of the callback.
112
113 Example: print "too late" after at least one second has passed.
114
115 $timer_once = AE::timer 1, 0, sub { print "too late\n" };
116
117 Example: print "blubb" once a second, starting as soon as possible.
118
119 $timer_repeated = AE::timer 0, 1, sub { print "blubb\n" };
120
121 =item $w = AE::signal $signame, $cb
122
123 Invoke the callback C<$cb> each time one or more occurrences of the
124 named signal C<$signame> are detected.
125
126 =item $w = AE::child $pid, $cb
127
128 Invokes the callback C<$cb> when the child with the given C<$pid> exits
129 (or all children, when C<$pid> is zero).
130
131 The callback will get the actual pid and exit status as arguments.
132
133 =item $w = AE::idle $cb
134
135 Invoke the callback C<$cb> each time the event loop is "idle" (has no
136 events outstanding), but do not prevent the event loop from polling for
137 more events.
138
139 =item $cv = AE::cv
140
141 =item $cv = AE::cv { BLOCK }
142
143 Create a new condition variable. The first form is identical to C<<
144 AnyEvent->condvar >>, the second form additionally sets the callback (as
145 if the C<cb> method is called on the condition variable).
146
147 =item AE::now
148
149 Returns the current event loop time (may be cached by the event loop).
150
151 =item AE::now_update
152
153 Ensures that the current event loop time is up to date.
154
155 =item AE::time
156
157 Return the current time (not cached, always consults a hardware clock).
158
159 =item AE::postpone { BLOCK }
160
161 Exactly the same as C<AnyEvent:::postpone>.
162
163 =item AE::log $level, $msg[, @args]
164
165 Exactly the same as C<AnyEvent::log> (or C<AnyEvent::Log::log>).
166
167 =back
168
169 =head1 AUTHOR
170
171 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
172 http://home.schmorp.de/
173
174 =cut
175
176 1
177