Re: [Caml-list] library/framework needed for distributed programming in OCaml

[Francois Berenger <berenger@riken.jp>]

Hello,

For the moment, the best answer I got privately in my mailbox
is to combine Janestreet's bin_prot and async libraries
or Martin Jambon's biniou with Lwt.

I kind of like what I read on async and bin_prot.

On 07/11/2012 07:21 PM, Lauri Alanko wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I also had need of such a library when I started working on a
> distributed programming project, but as I couldn't find anything that
> fulfilled my requirements, I wrote my own.
>
> The library is Lwt-based, and provides pretty straightforward remotely
> callable procedures:
>
> type ('a, 'r) handle
> val ($) : ('a, 'r) handle -> 'a -> 'r Lwt.t
> val publish : ('a -> 'r Lwt.t) -> ('a, 'r) handle
>
> The library is designed to work in a firewalled environment: firewalled
> nodes can join the distributed network by connecting to any accessible
> host of that network with an open listener. All messages between nodes
> are routed through the network.
>
> type connection
> val connect :
>      ?host:string -> ?port:int -> unit -> connection Lwt.t
> val listen :
>      ?port:int -> unit -> unit Lwt.t
>
> Initial values are obtained with "roots". A root (usually a handle, or a
> record or first-class module containing handles) is keyed to a string,
> and once set by a node, it can be discovered by any node in the network:
>
> val get_root : string -> 'a Lwt.t
> val set_root : string -> 'a -> unit Lwt.t
>
> This is the only unsafe part of the interface: the getter and setter
> _must_ agree on the type of the root or all hell breaks loose.
>
> I haven't published the library yet, since I have wanted to feel free to
> modify it as required by my application, but if you are interested, and
> cannot find a more mature solution, I'd be happy to provide it for your
> inspection.

If you publish your code somewhere (github is really nice), I would
be very happy to have a look at it.

Thanks a lot,
F.