[ViewVC] Diff of: cvs/cvsroot/Coro/Coro.pm

Comparing cvsroot/Coro/Coro.pm (file contents):
Revision 1.294 by root, Fri May 6 21:15:17 2011 UTC vs.
Revision 1.297 by root, Thu May 12 23:55:39 2011 UTC

    } 1, 2, 3;
 This creates a new coro thread and puts it into the ready queue, meaning
 it will run as soon as the CPU is free for it.
-C<async> will return a coro object - you can store this for future
+C<async> will return a Coro object - you can store this for future
-reference or ignore it, the thread itself will keep a reference to it's
+reference or ignore it - a thread that is running, ready to run or waiting
-thread object - threads are alive on their own.
+for some event is alive on it's own.
 Another way to create a thread is to call the C<new> constructor with a
 code-reference:
    new Coro sub {
 A lot can happen after the coro thread has started running. Quite usually,
 it will not run to the end in one go (because you could use a function
 instead), but it will give up the CPU regularly because it waits for
 external events.
-As long as a coro thread runs, it's coro object is available in the global
+As long as a coro thread runs, its Coro object is available in the global
 variable C<$Coro::current>.
 The low-level way to give up the CPU is to call the scheduler, which
 selects a new coro thread to run:
    my $coro = async {
       exit 1;
    };
-   $coro->cancel; # an also accept values for ->join to retrieve
+   $coro->cancel; # also accepts values for ->join to retrieve
-Cancellation I<can> be dangerous - it's a bit like calling C<exit>
+Cancellation I<can> be dangerous - it's a bit like calling C<exit> without
-without actually exiting, and might leave C libraries and XS modules in
+actually exiting, and might leave C libraries and XS modules in a weird
-a weird state. Unlike other thread implementations, however, Coro is
+state. Unlike other thread implementations, however, Coro is exceptionally
-exceptionally safe with regards to cancellation, as perl will always be
+safe with regards to cancellation, as perl will always be in a consistent
-in a consistent state, and for those cases where you want to do truly
+state, and for those cases where you want to do truly marvellous things
-marvellous things with your coro while it is being cancelled, there is
+with your coro while it is being cancelled - that is, make sure all
+cleanup code is executed from the thread being cancelled - there is even a
-even a C<< ->safe_cancel >> method.
+C<< ->safe_cancel >> method.
 So, cancelling a thread that runs in an XS event loop might not be the
 best idea, but any other combination that deals with perl only (cancelling
 when a thread is in a C<tie> method or an C<AUTOLOAD> for example) is
 safe.
+Lastly, a coro thread object that isn't referenced is C<< ->cancel >>'ed
+automatically - just like other objects in Perl. This is not such a common
+case, however - a running thread is referencedy b C<$Coro::current>, a
+thread ready to run is referenced by the ready queue, a thread waiting
+on a lock or semaphore is referenced by being in some wait list and so
+on. But a thread that isn't in any of those queues gets cancelled:
+   async {
+      schedule; # cede to other coros, don't go into the ready queue
+   };
+   cede;
+   # now the async above is destroyed, as it is not referenced by anything.
 =item 5. Cleanup
 Threads will allocate various resources. Most but not all will be returned
 when a thread terminates, during clean-up.
       # if we reutrn, or die or get cancelled, here,
       # then the semaphore will be "up"ed.
    };
 The C<Guard::guard> function comes in handy for any custom cleanup you
-might want to do:
+might want to do (but you cannot switch to other coroutines form those
+code blocks):
    async {
       my $window = new Gtk2::Window "toplevel";
       # The window will not be cleaned up automatically, even when $window
       # gets freed, so use a guard to ensure it's destruction
       # if we return or die here, the description will be restored
    }
 =item 6. Viva La Zombie Muerte
-Even after a thread has terminated and cleaned up it's resources, the coro
+Even after a thread has terminated and cleaned up its resources, the Coro
-object still is there and stores the return values of the thread. Only in
+object still is there and stores the return values of the thread.
-this state will the coro object be "reference counted" in the normal perl
-sense: the thread code keeps a reference to it when it is active, but not
-after it has terminated.
-The means the coro object gets freed automatically when the thread has
+The means the Coro object gets freed automatically when the thread has
 terminated and cleaned up and there arenot other references.
-If there are, the coro object will stay around, and you can call C<<
+If there are, the Coro object will stay around, and you can call C<<
 ->join >> as many times as you wish to retrieve the result values:
    async {
       print "hi\n";
       1
 To avoid this, it is best to put a suspended coro into the ready queue
 unconditionally, as every synchronisation mechanism must protect itself
 against spurious wakeups, and the one in the Coro family certainly do
 that.
+=item $state->is_new
+Returns true iff this Coro object is "new", i.e. has never been run
+yet. Those states basically consist of only the code reference to call and
+the arguments, but consumes very little other resources. New states will
+automatically get assigned a perl interpreter when they are transfered to.
+=item $state->is_zombie
+Returns true iff the Coro object has been cancelled, i.e.
+it's resources freed because they were C<cancel>'ed, C<terminate>'d,
+C<safe_cancel>'ed or simply went out of scope.
+The name "zombie" stems from UNIX culture, where a process that has
+exited and only stores and exit status and no other resources is called a
+"zombie".
 =item $is_ready = $coro->is_ready
 Returns true iff the Coro object is in the ready queue. Unless the Coro
 object gets destroyed, it will eventually be scheduled by the scheduler.
 the thread is inside a C callback that doesn't expect to be canceled,
 bad things can happen, or if the cancelled thread insists on running
 complicated cleanup handlers that rely on it'S thread context, things will
 not work.
-Sometimes it is safer to C<< ->throw >> an exception, or use C<<
+Any cleanup code being run (e.g. from C<guard> blocks) will be run without
-->safe_cancel >>.
+a thread context, and is not allowed to switch to other threads. On the
+plus side, C<< ->cancel >> will always clean up the thread, no matter
+what.  If your cleanup code is complex or you want to avoid cancelling a
+C-thread that doesn't know how to clean up itself, it can be better to C<<
+->throw >> an exception, or use C<< ->safe_cancel >>.
-The arguments are not copied, but instead will be referenced directly
+The arguments to C<< ->cancel >> are not copied, but instead will
-(e.g. if you pass C<$var> and after the call change that variable, then
+be referenced directly (e.g. if you pass C<$var> and after the call
-you might change the return values passed to e.g. C<join>, so don't do
+change that variable, then you might change the return values passed to
-that).
+e.g. C<join>, so don't do that).
 The resources of the Coro are usually freed (or destructed) before this
 call returns, but this can be delayed for an indefinite amount of time, as
 in some cases the manager thread has to run first to actually destruct the
 Coro object.
 Works mostly like C<< ->cancel >>, but is inherently "safer", and
 consequently, can fail with an exception in cases the thread is not in a
 cancellable state.
 This method works a bit like throwing an exception that cannot be caught
-- specifically, it will clean up the thread from within itself, so all
+- specifically, it will clean up the thread from within itself, so
-cleanup handlers (e.g. C<guard> blocks) are run with full thread context
+all cleanup handlers (e.g. C<guard> blocks) are run with full thread
-and can block if they wish.
+context and can block if they wish. The downside is that there is no
+guarantee that the thread can be cancelled when you call this method, and
+therefore, it might fail. It is also considerably slower than C<cancel> or
+C<terminate>.
-A thread is safe-cancellable if it either hasn't been run yet, or
+A thread is in a safe-cancellable state if it either hasn't been run yet,
-it has no C context attached and is inside an SLF function.
+or it has no C context attached and is inside an SLF function.
 The latter two basically mean that the thread isn't currently inside a
-perl callback called from some C function (usually XS modules) and isn't
+perl callback called from some C function (usually via some XS modules)
-currently inside some C function itself.
+and isn't currently executing inside some C function itself (via Coro's XS
+API).
-This call always returns true when it could cancel the thread, or croaks
+This call returns true when it could cancel the thread, or croaks with an
-with an error otherwise, so you can write things like this:
+error otherwise (i.e. it either returns true or doesn't return at all).
+Why the weird interface? Well, there are two common models on how and
+when to cancel things. In the first, you have the expectation that your
+coro thread can be cancelled when you want to cancel it - if the thread
+isn't cancellable, this would be a bug somewhere, so C<< ->safe_cancel >>
+croaks to notify of the bug.
+In the second model you sometimes want to ask nicely to cancel a thread,
+but if it's not a good time, well, then don't cancel. This can be done
+relatively easy like this:
    if (! eval { $coro->safe_cancel }) {
       warn "unable to cancel thread: $@";
    }
+However, what you never should do is first try to cancel "safely" and
+if that fails, cancel the "hard" way with C<< ->cancel >>. That makes
+no sense: either you rely on being able to execute cleanup code in your
+thread context, or you don't. If you do, then C<< ->safe_cancel >> is the
+only way, and if you don't, then C<< ->cancel >> is always faster and more
+direct.
 =item $coro->schedule_to
 Puts the current coro to sleep (like C<Coro::schedule>), but instead
 of continuing with the next coro from the ready queue, always switch to
 inside the coro at the next convenient point in time. Otherwise
 clears the exception object.
 Coro will check for the exception each time a schedule-like-function
 returns, i.e. after each C<schedule>, C<cede>, C<< Coro::Semaphore->down
->>, C<< Coro::Handle->readable >> and so on. Most of these functions
+>>, C<< Coro::Handle->readable >> and so on. Most of those functions (all
-detect this case and return early in case an exception is pending.
+that are part of Coro itself) detect this case and return early in case an
+exception is pending.
 The exception object will be thrown "as is" with the specified scalar in
 C<$@>, i.e. if it is a string, no line number or newline will be appended
 (unlike with C<die>).
-This can be used as a softer means than C<cancel> to ask a coro to
+This can be used as a softer means than either C<cancel> or C<safe_cancel
-end itself, although there is no guarantee that the exception will lead to
+>to ask a coro to end itself, although there is no guarantee that the
-termination, and if the exception isn't caught it might well end the whole
+exception will lead to termination, and if the exception isn't caught it
-program.
+might well end the whole program.
 You might also think of C<throw> as being the moral equivalent of
 C<kill>ing a coro with a signal (in this case, a scalar).
 =item $coro->join
 Wait until the coro terminates and return any values given to the
 C<terminate> or C<cancel> functions. C<join> can be called concurrently
 from multiple threads, and all will be resumed and given the status
 return once the C<$coro> terminates.
-=cut
-sub join {
-   my $self = shift;
-   unless ($self->{_status}) {
-      my $current = $current;
-      push @{$self->{_on_destroy}}, sub {
-         $current->ready;
-         undef $current;
-      };
-      &schedule while $current;
-   }
-   wantarray ? @{$self->{_status}} : $self->{_status}[0];
-}
 =item $coro->on_destroy (\&cb)
 Registers a callback that is called when this coro thread gets destroyed,
 that is, after it's resources have been freed but before it is joined. The
 callback gets passed the terminate/cancel arguments, if any, and I<must
 not> die, under any circumstances.
 There can be any number of C<on_destroy> callbacks per coro, and there is
 no way currently to remove a callback once added.
-=cut
-sub on_destroy {
-   my ($self, $cb) = @_;
-   push @{ $self->{_on_destroy} }, $cb;
-}
 =item $oldprio = $coro->prio ($newprio)
 Sets (or gets, if the argument is missing) the priority of the
 coro thread. Higher priority coro get run before lower priority
 future to allow per-thread schedulers, but Coro::State does not yet allow
 this). I recommend disabling thread support and using processes, as having
 the windows process emulation enabled under unix roughly halves perl
 performance, even when not used.
+Attempts to use threads created in another emulated process will crash
+("cleanly", with a null pointer exception).
 =item coro switching is not signal safe
 You must not switch to another coro from within a signal handler (only
 relevant with %SIG - most event libraries provide safe signals), I<unless>
 you are sure you are not interrupting a Coro function.

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Comparing cvsroot/Coro/Coro.pm (file contents): Revision 1.294 by root, Fri May 6 21:15:17 2011 UTC vs. Revision 1.297 by root, Thu May 12 23:55:39 2011 UTC

Diff Legend

Comparing cvsroot/Coro/Coro.pm (file contents):
Revision 1.294 by root, Fri May 6 21:15:17 2011 UTC vs.
Revision 1.297 by root, Thu May 12 23:55:39 2011 UTC