[cap-talk] ref_send v0.19

[Tyler Close]

Hi all,

I've uploaded a new version of the ref_send library that addresses the
feedback I've received on v0.18. The updated javadoc is at:

http://waterken.sourceforge.net/javadoc/

and the download is at:

http://waterken.sourceforge.net/download.html

Changes:

1. I pruned the Joe-E API in the ref_send distribution to include only
those elements that no objections were raised about. Adrian, could you
confirm that you're willing to commit to this API being in the Joe-E
1.0 API? Note that I haven't done anything about the name of the
org.joe_e.Keeper interface, whose name David Wagner objected to.

2.  The purpose of the Eventual.ready() method is to make an eventual
reference compatible with the when() method. Both David and Kevin were
confused by this method, so I hid it behind an overload of the when()
method. Hopefully this will be less confusing.

3. Dean didn't like the Closure interface. I just deleted this interface.

4. Deleting the Closure interface also resulted in changing the Loop
interface, which also addresses a concern raised by David Wagner.

5. I moved the variable interface out of org.ref_send.promise and made
it incompatible with the promise interface. This results in a bit of
strangeness in the network protocol, which we have yet to discuss on
this mailing list, but brings the ref_send API closer to the promise
semantics of E.

6. I updated the Javadoc in several places. I believe I have addressed
all the concerns raised so far.

7. I have not changed the Channel interface. For me the biggest
problem with the Pair suggestion is that it requires repeating the
type of the channel twice. For example,

Channel<Boolean>

becomes:

Pair<Promise<Boolean>,Resolver<Boolean>>

This just gets worse as the channel type becomes a more complex
expression. I'd like to terminate discussion of this aspect of the
API.

Additional feedback is welcome.

The download size keeps getting pleasingly smaller. Hopefully this
means we're rapidly converging on a 1.0 API.

Tyler

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