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https://github.com/dotboris/eldritch

A ruby DSL that adds concurrent programming constructs to make parallelism easier.
https://github.com/dotboris/eldritch

async-methods dsl ruby

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A ruby DSL that adds concurrent programming constructs to make parallelism easier.

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Eldritch
========

[![Build Status](http://travis-ci.org/dotboris/eldritch.svg?branch=master)](http://travis-ci.org/dotboris/eldritch)
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[![Code Climate](http://codeclimate.com/github/dotboris/eldritch.png)](http://codeclimate.com/github/dotboris/eldritch)

_The dark arts of concurrent programming._

A DSL that adds parallel programming constructs to make your life a little
easier.

Usage
-----

1. Install it `gem install eldritch`
1. Require it `require 'eldritch'`
1. Use it (see features below)

By default eldritch will inject the DSL into the global scope. If you don't want
this, you can require `eldritch/safe` instead of `eldritch`.

```ruby
require 'eldricth/safe'

class MyClass
include Eldritch::DSL
extend Eldritch::DSL

# The DSL is available in this class
end
```

Development
-----------

### Setup

```sh
bundler install
```

### Running tests

```sh
bundler exec rake
```

### Running examples

```sh
ruby -I lib examples/{your favorite example}.rb
```

### Generate doc

```sh
bundle exec rake doc
```

Features
--------

### async methods

Async methods run concurrently when called. The caller is returned control right
away and the method runs in the background.

```ruby
require 'eldritch'

# define an async method
async def send_email(email)
# ...
end

send_email(some_email) # runs in the background
```

#### ruby 1.9.3 and 2.0.0

For all versions of ruby before 2.1.0, you need to define async methods like so:

```ruby
def foo
# stuff
end
async :foo
```

Since ruby 2.1.0, def returns the name of the method defined as a symbol. This
allows for the cleaner `async def foo` syntax.

### async blocks

Async blocks are run concurrently.

```ruby
require 'eldritch'

async do
# runs in the background
end
```

### tasks

Async blocks and async methods both return tasks. These can be used to interact
with the async block/method.

```ruby
require 'eldritch'

task = async do
# calculate something that will take a long time
end

# we need to result of the task
res = 2 + task.value # waits for the task to finish
```

### together blocks

Together blocks are used to control all async blocks and methods within them as
a group. Before exiting, together blocks wait for all their async calls to be
done before returning.

```ruby
require 'eldritch'

together do
1000.times do
async do
# do some work
end
end
end
# all 1000 tasks are done
```

These blocks can also take an argument. This argument is a group that can be
used to control the async calls in the block. See the documentation for
Eldritch::Group for more information.

```ruby
require 'eldritch'

together do |group|
5.times do
async do
# do something
group.interrupt if some_condition # stops all other tasks
end
end
end
```

A note on GIL
-------------

MRI has this nasty little feature called a _GIL_ or _Global Interpreter Lock_.
This lock makes it so that only one thread can run at a time. Let's say that you
have 4 cores, running threaded code on MRI will only make use of 1 core.
Sometimes, you might not gain a speed boost if you make code parallel. This
could the case even if theory says otherwise.

Not all ruby implementations use a _GIL_. For example, jRuby does not use a
_GIL_.

If your ruby implementation has a _GIL_, you will probably see a speed boost if
your code does a lot of IO or anything that's blocking. In that case running on
a single core is not that much of a hindrance, because most of the threads will
be blocked and your code should run more often.