Key Expressions

This page lists some of AmbientTalk's most characteristic expressions, showing how the language aids the programmer in writing applications for distributed computing.

Here is how to send a message to a remote object, receive a reply, and deal with the exception that the reply was not received in time:

import /.at.lang.futures;
 
when: lightbulb<-toggleLight()@Due(seconds(10)) becomes: { |reply|
  // code to execute when the message has been
  // succesfully processed.
  // reply refers to the return value of the
  // toggleLight method.
} catch: TimeoutException using: { |e|
  // code to execute when the light bulb did not
  // respond before 10 seconds
  // note: this block may be executed either because
  // the message toggleLight could not be sent or was
  // not succesfully acknowledged, or because the message
  // carrying the reply was not received, or has not yet
  // been received (missed the deadline)
}

The expression obj←msg() denotes an asynchronous message send. The @Due annotation puts a timeout on this asynchronous send.

To make an object available to other actors in the ad hoc network, execute:

def pub := export: obj as: Type;

where obj is the object to be exported, and Type refers to a type tag by means of which the object can be discovered. To unexport the object, execute pub.cancel(). Here's how to discover the object:

def sub := when: Type discovered: { |obj|
  // code to execute upon discovery
}

Here, obj is either a far reference to the object (i.e. a remote object reference) if obj is pass-by-reference, or a copy of the object, if obj is pass-by-copy. sub refers to a subscription object. To stop looking for a Type object in the ad hoc network, invoke sub.cancel().

The above block is triggered upon discovering one object of the appropriate (sub)type. If one wants to trigger a block every time an object of the appropriate type is discovered, execute:

whenever: Type discovered: { |obj|
  // code to execute upon every discovery
}

Given a far reference ref to a remote object, here's how to use AmbientTalk's built in failure detector to react to the object going offline:

def sub := when: ref disconnected: {
  // code to execute upon disconnection
}

And here is how to react to the object becoming available again:

def sub := when: ref reconnected: {
  // code to execute upon reconnection
}

In both cases, sub refers to a subscription object. Invoking sub.cancel() cancels the subscription of the block with the far reference, after which it will not be invoked anymore until the block is explicitly re-registered.

In both of the above cases, the block is fired only once. If the block must be fired every time a disconnection/reconnection occurs, use the whenever:disconnected: and whenever:reconnected: variants.

Here's how to create a lease for an object:

import /.at.lang.leasedrefs;
 
def l := lease: minutes(10) for: obj;

Here, l is a leased reference: a proxy to obj which remains valid for at least 10 minutes. Every time a message is sent via the lease to the object, the lease gets transparently renewed. When a lease has expired, it no longer acts as a proxy for obj, allowing obj to be eventually reclaimed if no other objects refer to it. One can react to the expiration of a lease as follows:

when: l expired: {
  // code to execute upon lease expiration
}

Here's how to postpone the execution of a block of code until a certain period of time has elapsed:

import /.at.support.timer;
 
def sub := when: seconds(10) elapsed: {
  // code to execute after 10 seconds
}

Here, sub refers to a subscription object. Invoking sub.cancel() unregisters the block with the timer, such that it will not be executed in the future. If you want to repeatedly execute a block of code, write:

whenever: minutes(1) elapsed: {
  // code to execute every minute
}