Nim CPS: compile-time continuations
github.comRight now I'm cooking up an stdlib based around CPS: https://github.com/alaviss/nim-sys
The major perk is that you queue computation (read: "thread"), not callbacks, so you can write stuff like this:
while true:
let bytesRead = read(fd, buf, bufsize)
if bytesRead == -1:
if errno == EAGAIN or errno == EWOULDBLOCK:
wait(fd, Read) # Queue this computation until the fd is readable
else:
raise newIOError(errno)
else:
return bytesRead
Even IOCP is made simple here: let overlapped = new Overlapped
# <do your operation>
if error == WSA_IO_PENDING:
wait(handle, overlapped) # Queue this computation until the overlapped operation is complete
if WSAGetOverlappedResult(...) == FALSE:
raise newIOError(errno)
else: ...
I think this kind of simplicity afforded to user code is rarely seen in most languages, which is why I decided to base my stdlib on this.So, what this is: it's a Nim macro that rewrites your regular procedural code into a continuation using the CPS transform; this offers you total power over the flow control of your code and allows you to build things like coroutines, async I/O schedulers, iterators, exceptions, all as first class citizens in the language. It has been under development for quite some time and is pretty much mature.
Relevant recent articles:
- https://without.boats/blog/let-futures-be-futures/
- https://adam.nels.onl//blog/maybe-everything-is-a-coroutine/
Resubmit because I typo'd the link. XD