some notes for tomorrow's work

assets/test_prelude.ld

@@ -1231,14 +1231,33 @@ fn yield! {
 	() -> base :process (:yield)
 }
 
+& TODO: implement these in the VM
+fn alive? {
+	"Tells if the passed keyword is the id for a live process."
+	(pid as :keyword) -> base :process (:alive, pid)
+}
+
+fn link! {
+	"Creates a 'hard link' between two processes: if either one dies, they both do."
+	(pid1 as :keyword, pid2 as :keyword) -> link! (pid1, pid2, :report)
+	(pid1 as :keyword, pid2 as :keyword, :report) -> base :process (:link_report, pid1, pid2)
+	(pid1 as :keyword, pid2 as :keyword, :panic) -> base :process (:link_panic, pid1, pid2)
+}
+
 fn msgs () -> base :process (:msgs)
 
+fn flush! () -> base :process (:flush)
+
+fn sleep! (ms as :number) -> base :process (:sleep, ms)
+
 #{
 	self
 	send
 	msgs
-	spawn!
+ 	spawn!
 	yield!
+	alive?
+	link!
 
 	abs
 	abs

may_2025_thoughts.md

@@ -827,3 +827,50 @@ Thus we can use it to communicate with the process.
 But everything else? Seems pretty straightforward.
 
 
+#### Some time later...
+I've implemented what I decribe above. It works! I'm low-key astonished.
+It perfectly handles an infinitely recurring process! What the fuck.
+Anyway, things left to do:
+* [ ] `receive` forms are the big one: they require threading through the whole interpreter
+* [ ] implement the missing process functions at the end of prelude
+* [ ] research how Elixir/Erlang's abstractions over processes work (I'm especially interested in how to make synchronous-looking calls); take a look especially at https://medium.com/qixxit-development/build-your-own-genserver-in-49-lines-of-code-1a9db07b6f13
+* [ ] write some examples just using these simple tools (not even GenServer, etc.) to see how they work, and to start building curriculum
+* [ ] develop a design for how to deal with asynchronous io with js
+
+```
+fn agent/get (pid) -> {
+    send (pid, (:get, self ()))
+    receive {
+        (:response, value) -> value
+    }
+}
+
+fn agent/store (pid, x) -> {
+    send (pid, (:store, x))
+    :ok
+}
+
+fn agent/update (pix, f) -> {
+    send (pid, (:update, f))
+}
+
+fn agent (state) -> receive {
+    (:get, pid) -> {
+        send (pid, (:response, state))
+        agent (state)
+    }
+    (:update, pid, f) -> {
+        agent (f (state))
+    }
+    (:store, pid, x) -> {
+        agent (x)
+    }
+}
+```
+
+Two things that pop out to me:
+* The way this works is just to yield immediately. This actually makes a lot of sense. If we put them next to one another, there's no risk that there'll be backlogged `(:response, x)` messages in the mbx, right? But that makes me a little queasy.
+* The way `gen_server` works is pretty deep inversion of control; you effectively write callbacks for the `gen_server` to call. I'm not sure that's how we want to do things in Ludus; it's a handy pattern, and easy. But it's not simple. But also worth investigating. In any event, it's the foundation of all the other process patterns Elixir has developed. I need an intuiation around it.
+
+
+

sandbox.ld

@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
-let pid = spawn! (fn () -> {
-  print! (self ())
-  print! (msgs ())
-})
+fn simple_reporter () -> {
+  print! (self (), msgs ())
+}
 
-send (pid, :foo)
-send (pid, :bar)
+fn hanger () -> hanger ()
+
+let foo = spawn! (hanger)
+let bar = spawn! (simple_reporter)
+let baz = spawn! (fn () -> panic! :oops)
+
+send (foo, [:foo, :bar, :baz])
+send (bar, (1, 2, 3))
 
 yield! ()