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A behaviour/support library for writing plain Erlang FSMs.

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# Plain FSM - Support library for wrigin textbook Erlang FSMs #

__Authors:__ [`ulf@wiger.net`](mailto:ulf@wiger.net).

A behaviour/support library for writing plain Erlang FSMs.

This library implements an OTP behaviour for writing plain Erlang FSMs,
alleviating a long-standing gripe of mine that the OTP behaviours, for all
their power, force programmers into a coding style that is very much
different from that taught in the Basic Erlang Course (or the book, or
online tutorials, ...) -- the type of programming that made us want to
use Erlang in the first place.

Only in my old age have I begun to understand fully what a sacrifice
this is. See e.g. my presentation [Death by Accidental Complexity (QCon SF 2010)](http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Death-by-Accidental-Complexity)
for a more detailed discussion of the issues involved.
(Slides also available in the `doc/` directory of this repos)

The requirements that drove us away from plain Erlang programming
in the first place were:
* __The need to support _system messages___ to control upgrade,
   state inspection, shutdown, etc. The plain_fsm library solves this in a
   reasonable way, I think.
* __The need for debugging support__. The debugging support in
   e.g. gen_server is, I believe, rendered obsolete by the new powerful
   trace support (and dbg) in later versions of OTP.
* In the case of gen_server, __reducing the need to reinvent the   wheel__, a valid point, but more so for e.g. the client side of
   gen_server:call(). In a protocol state machine, the only thing that
   really needs reusing is the handling of system messages.

However, the behaviours provided by OTP for FSM programming,
`gen_server` and `gen_fsm` (`gen_server`
is perhaps a more common choice than `gen_fsm`), both have the
distinct drawback that you cannot normally start with a classic
Erlang design and then migrate to a behaviour without significant
code rewrite. In addition, the two behaviours are semantically different
from the classic Erlang design

## Using plain_fsm ##

First, write your state machine without worrying about OTP system
messages. Once you're happy with it, figure out where you really want
to handle system messages. Normally, it will suffice to do it in a fairly
stable state. A good rule of thumb is that the top-level state machine
should handle system messages, while the transient (sub-) states
shouldn't

In the states where you want to handle system messages, you have
three choices:

### (A) Insert the system messages in the receive clause: ###

```

idle(S) ->
   Parent = plain_fsm:info(parent),
   receive
      {system, From, Req} ->
         plain_fsm:handle_system_msg(
             Req, From, S, fun(S1) -> idle(S1) end);
      {'EXIT', Parent, Reason} ->
         plain_fsm:parent_EXIT(Reason, S);
      ... %% your original code here
   end.

```

This has the advantage that everyone can understand what's going on.
The part that plain_fsm.erl helps you with is the set of functions
`system_code_change()`, `system_continue()`,
`system_shutdown()`, `format_status()`, which
are required callbacks when you handle system messages directly.

### (B) Handle system messages and unknown messages together: ###

```

idle(S) ->
   Parent = plain_fsm:info(parent),
   receive
      ... %% your original code here
      Msg ->
         plain_fsm:handle_msg(Msg, State, fun(S1) -> idle(S1) end)
   end.

```

This is quite convenient if the receive statement already has a
'catch-all' clause, discarding unknown messages.
`plain_fsm:handle_msg/3` will handle system messages properly
and ignore any other message.

### (C) Write a pseudo wrapper function around your receive clause: ###

```

idle(S) ->
   plain_fsm:extended_receive(
      receive
         ... %% your original code
      end).

```

The function `plain_fsm:extended_receive/1` is replaced
in a _parse_transform_ into something that looks very much like
the previous program (A). The code, as it reads, requires the reader to
know that the transformation takes place, otherwise the semantics
would be confusing (you cannot solve the problem using a real function
that way.) On the plus side, this is a fairly small violation of both
the original code and Erlang's semantics.

_Note that for this to work, you must include "plain_fsm.hrl"in your module._

#### Example ####

In the module [fsm_example.erl](https://github.com/uwiger/plain_fsm/blob/master/../src/fsm_example.erl)
(included in the plain_fsm package), we choose to handle system
messages in the idle state. The example code is runnable, and supports
suspend, resume, status inspection, and code change.

Imagine that the code initially looked like this:

```

idle(S) ->
    receive
     a ->
         io:format("going to state a~n", []),
         a(S);
     b ->
         io:format("going to state b~n", []),
         b(S)
    after 10000 ->
         io:format("timeout in idle~n", []),
         idle(S)
    end).

```

The change required to handle system messages is as follows:

```

idle(S) -><a docgen-rel="seemfa" docgen-href="#extended_receive/1" href="https://github.com/uwiger/plain_fsm/blob/master/doc/README.md#extended_receive-1">plain_fsm:extended_receive</a>(
      receive
          a ->
              io:format("going to state a~n", []),
              a(S);
          b ->
              io:format("going to state b~n", []),
              b(S)
      after 10000 ->
              io:format("timeout in idle~n", []),
              idle(S)
      end).

```

In addition, we change the start function from, in this case:

```

spawn_link() ->
    spawn_link(fun() ->
                       process_flag(trap_exit, true),
                       idle(mystate)
               end).

```

Is changed into:

```

spawn_link() -><a docgen-rel="seemfa" docgen-href="#spawn_link/2" href="https://github.com/uwiger/plain_fsm/blob/master/doc/README.md#spawn_link-2">plain_fsm:spawn_link</a>(?MODULE, fun() ->
                                          process_flag(trap_exit,true),
                                          idle(mystate)
                                  end).

```

See also [spawn/2](https://github.com/uwiger/plain_fsm/blob/master/doc/README.md#spawn-2) and [spawn_opt/3](https://github.com/uwiger/plain_fsm/blob/master/doc/README.md#spawn_opt-3)
for information on other possible start functions.

To be fully compliant, you also need to supply a code_change/3 function.
See [behaviour_info/1](https://github.com/uwiger/plain_fsm/blob/master/doc/README.md#behaviour_info-1) for details.

## Modules ##

<table width="100%" border="0" summary="list of modules">
<tr><td><a href="https://github.com/uwiger/plain_fsm/blob/master/doc/fsm_example.md" class="module">fsm_example</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="https://github.com/uwiger/plain_fsm/blob/master/doc/plain_fsm.md" class="module">plain_fsm</a></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="https://github.com/uwiger/plain_fsm/blob/master/doc/plain_fsm_xform.md" class="module">plain_fsm_xform</a></td></tr></table>

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