NAME

    Reflex - Class library for flexible, reactive programs.

SYNOPSIS

    The distribution includes a few different versions of this synopsis.
    See eg/eg-18-synopsis-no-moose.pl if you don't like Moose. See
    eg/eg-32-promise-tiny.pl if you prefer promises (condvar-like). See
    eg/eg-36-coderefs-tiny.pl if you prefer coderefs and/or closures.

            {
                    package App;
                    use Moose;
                    extends 'Reflex::Base';
                    use Reflex::Interval;
                    use Reflex::Trait::Watched qw(watches);
    
                    watches ticker => (
                            isa   => 'Reflex::Interval',
                            setup => { interval => 1, auto_repeat => 1 },
                    );
    
                    sub on_ticker_tick {
                            print "tick at ", scalar(localtime), "...\n";
                    }
            }
    
            exit App->new()->run_all();

DESCRIPTION

    Reflex is a class library that assists with writing reactive (AKA
    event-driven) programs. Reflex uses Moose internally, but it doesn't
    enforce programs to use Moose's syntax.

    Those who enjoy Moose should find useful Reflex's comprehensive suite
    of reactive roles.

    Reflex is considered "reactive" because it's an implementation of the
    reactor pattern. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactor_pattern

 About Reactive Objects

    Reactive objects provide responses to interesting (to them) stimuli.
    For example, an object might be waiting for input from a client, a
    signal from an administrator, a particular time of day, and so on. The
    App object in the SYNOPSIS is waiting for timer tick events. It
    generates console messages in response to those events.

 Example Reactive Objects

    Here an Echoer class emits "pong" events in response to ping()
    commands. It uses Moose's extends(), but it could about as easily use
    warnings, strict, and base instead. Reflex::Base gets its emit() method
    from Reflex::Role::Reactive.

            package Echoer;
            use Moose;
            extends 'Reflex::Base';
    
            sub ping {
                    my ($self, $args) = @_;
                    print "Echoer was pinged!\n";
                    $self->emit( -name => "pong" );
            }

    The next object uses Echoer. It creates an Echoer and pings it to get
    started. It also reacts to "pong" events by pinging the Echoer again.
    Reflex::Trait::Watched (via its exported watches() declarative syntax)
    implicitly watches the object in echoer(), mapping its "pong" event to
    the on_echoer_pong() method.

            package Pinger;
            use Moose;
            extends 'Reflex::Base';
            use Reflex::Trait::Watched qw(watches);
    
            watches echoer => (
                    isa     => 'Echoer',
                    default => sub { Echoer->new() },
            );
    
            sub BUILD {
                    my $self = shift;
                    $self->echoer->ping();
            }
    
            sub on_echoer_pong {
                    my $self = shift;
                    print "Pinger got echoer's pong!\n";
                    $self->echoer->ping();
            }

    Then the Pinger would be created and run.

            Pinger->new()->run_all();

    A complete, runnable version of this example is in the distribution as
    eg/eg-37-ping-pong.pl.

 Coderef Callbacks

    Reflex supports any conceivable callback type, even the simple ones:
    plain old coderefs. You don't need to write objects to handle events.

    Here we'll start a periodic timer and handle its ticks with a simple
    callback. The program is still reactive. Every second it prints "timer
    ticked" in response Reflex::Interval's events.

            my $t = Reflex::Interval->new(
                    interval    => 1,
                    auto_repeat => 1,
                    on_tick     => sub { say "timer ticked" },
            );
    
            $t->run_all();

    A complete, runnable version of the above example is available as
    eg/eg-36-tiny-coderefs.pl in the distribution.

 Promises Instead of Callbacks

    Callback haters are not left out. Reflex objects may also be used as
    asynchronous event generators. The following example is identical in
    function to the previous coderef callback example, but it doesn't use
    callbacks at all.

    It may not be obvious that the same emit() method drives all of
    Reflex's forms of callback. The same Reflex::Interval class can be used
    in many different ways.

            use Reflex::Interval;
    
            my $t = Reflex::Interval->new(
                    interval    => 1,
                    auto_repeat => 1,
            );
    
            while (my $event = $t->next()) {
                    say "next() returned an event (@$event)";
            }

PUBLIC METHODS

    Reflex itself contains some convenience methods for cleaner semantics.

 run_all

    Run all active Reflex objects until they destruct.

            # (Omitted: First you'll need to create some Reflex objects.)
    
            Reflex->run_all();
            exit;

BUNDLED MODULES AND DOCUMENTATION INDEX

    Reflex bundles a number of helpful base classes to get things started.

 Core Modules

    The basic modules upon which most everything else is built.

  Reflex - You're reading it!

  Reflex::Base - A base class for reactive (aka, event driven) objects.

  Reflex::Role - Define a new Reflex parameterized role.

  Reflex::Role::Reactive - Add non-blocking reactive behavior to a class.

 Callback Adapters

    Reflex provides adapters for nearly every kind of callback that exists,
    including condvar-like promises that allow Reflex objects to be used
    inline without callbacks at all.

  Reflex::Callback - A base class for callback adapters.

  Reflex::Callback::CodeRef - Implement plain coderef callbacks.

  Reflex::Callback::Method - Implement class and object method callbacks.

  Reflex::Callback::Promise - Return events procedurally rather than via
  callbacks.

  Reflex::Callbacks - Convenience functions to creating and use callbacks.

 POE Adapters

    POE provides over 400 modules for various useful things. Reflex can
    work with them using these adapters.

  Reflex::POE::Event - Communicate with POE components that expect command
  events.

  Reflex::POE::Postback - Communicate with POE components that respond via
  postbacks.

  Reflex::POE::Session - Communicate with POE components that expect to
  talk to POE sessions.

  Reflex::POE::Wheel - A generic POE::Wheel adapter to use them in Reflex.

  Reflex::POE::Wheel::Run - Adapt POE::Wheel::Run by wrapping it in a
  Reflex class.

 Object Collections

    It's often useful to manage collections of like-typed modules, such as
    connections or jobs.

  Reflex::Collection - Automatically manage a collection of collectible
  objects.

  Reflex::Role::Collectible - Allow objects to be managed by
  Reflex::Collection.

  Reflex::Sender - API to access the objects an event has passed through.

 I/O

    Event driven programs most often react to I/O of some sort. These
    modules provide reactive I/O support.

  Reflex::Acceptor - A non-blocking server (client socket acceptor).

  Reflex::Client - A non-blocking socket client.

  Reflex::Connector - A non-blocking client socket connector.

  Reflex::Role::Accepting - Add non-blocking connection accepting to a
  role.

  Reflex::Role::Connecting - Add non-blocking client connecting to a class.

  Reflex::Role::InStreaming - Add non-blocking streaming input behavior to
  a class.

  Reflex::Role::OutStreaming - Add non-blocking streaming output behavior
  to a class.

  Reflex::Role::Readable - Add non-blocking readable-watching behavior to a
  class.

  Reflex::Role::Reading - Add standard non-blocking sysread() behavior to a
  class.

  Reflex::Role::Recving - Add standard non-blocking send/recv behavior to a
  class.

  Reflex::Role::Streaming - Add non-blocking streaming I/O behavior to a
  class.

  Reflex::Role::Writable - Add non-blocking writable-watching behavior to a
  class.

  Reflex::Role::Writing - Add standard non-blocking syswrite() behavior to
  a class.

  Reflex::Stream - A non-blocking, buffered and translated I/O stream.

  Reflex::UdpPeer - A base class for non-blocking UDP networking peers.

 Signals and Child Processes

    Modules that provide signal support, including SIGCHLD for child
    process management.

  Reflex::PID - A non-blocking SIGCHLD watcher for a specific process.

  Reflex::Role::PidCatcher - Add non-blocking SIGCHLD watching to a class.

  Reflex::Role::SigCatcher - Add non-blocking signal handling behavior to a
  class.

  Reflex::Signal - A non-blocking signal watcher.

 Timers

    Timer management has been relatively overlooked so far. We'll get to it
    eventually, and you're welcome to help.

  Reflex::Interval - A non-blocking periodic interval timer.

  Reflex::Role::Interval - Add non-blocking periodic callbacks to a class.

  Reflex::Role::Timeout - Add non-blocking timeout timer behavior to a
  class.

  Reflex::Role::Wakeup - Add non-blocking wakeup alarm behavior to a class.

  Reflex::Timeout - A non-blocking single-shot delayed timer.

  Reflex::Wakeup - A non-blocking single-shot alarm for a specific time.

 Breadboarding Traits

    Reflex also implements signal/slot style object interaction, through
    emit() and watch() methods. These traits were inspired by Smalltalk's
    watchable object attributes.

  Reflex::Trait::EmitsOnChange - Cause a Moose attribute to emit() an event
  when it changes.

  Reflex::Trait::Observed - (Deprecated. See Reflex::Trait::Watched.)

  Reflex::Trait::Watched - Automatically watch a Reactive object stored in
  a Moose attribute.

ASSISTANCE

    Thank you for volunteering to assist with this project. You can find
    like-minded people in a few places, in descending order of preference.
    Or, oh, wait, maybe you wanted assistance using it? We'll help you,
    too. :)

    See irc.perl.org #reflex for help with Reflex.

    See irc.perl.org #poe for help with POE and Reflex.

    See irc.perl.org #moose for help with Moose.

    Support is officially available from POE's mailing list as well. Send a
    blank message to poe-subscribe@perl.org <mailto:poe-subscribe@perl.org>
    to join.

    The Reflex package also has helpful examples which may serve as a
    tutorial until Reflex is documented more.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    irc.perl.org channel #moose <irc://irc.perl.org/moose> and #poe
    <irc://irc.perl.org/poe>. The former for assisting in learning their
    fine libraries, sometimes against everyone's better judgement. The
    latter for putting up with lengthy and sometimes irrelevant design
    discussion for oh so long.

SEE ALSO

    Moose, POE, the Reflex and Reflexive namespaces on CPAN.

    Ohlo - https://www.ohloh.net/p/reflex-perl

    CIA - http://cia.vc/stats/project/reflex

BUGS

    We appreciate your feedback, bug reports, feature requests, patches and
    kudos. You may enter them into our request tracker by following the
    instructions at https://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?&Queue=Reflex.

    We also accept e-mail at bug-Reflex@rt.cpan.org
    <mailto:bug-Reflex@rt.cpan.org>.

AUTHORS

    Rocco Caputo, RCAPUTO on CPAN.

 CONTRIBUTORS

    Reflex is open source, and we welcome involvement.

    Chris Fedde, CFEDDE on CPAN

      * https://github.com/rcaputo/reflex

      * http://gitorious.org/reflex

TODO

    Please browse the source for the TODO marker. Some are visible in the
    documentation, and others are sprinlked around in the code's comments.

    Also see "TODO.otl" in docs in the distribution. This is a Vim Outliner
    file with the current roadmap and progress.

    Set up Dist::Zilla to reduce technical debt and make releasing code fun
    again.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

    Copyright 2009-2011 by Rocco Caputo.

    Reflex is free software. You may redistribute and/or modify it under
    the same terms as Perl itself.

