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Pony – High-Performance Safe Actor Programming

ponylang.io

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Re: Pony – High-Performance Safe Actor Programming

#31
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

`error` in Pony is for partial functions. A partial function is where you can't compute a result based on the input. If you need to know what went wrong (because more than one thing might have gone wrong and that needs to be communicated), you can use a union type for the result and match accordingly (as you would in Rust as an example).

Ah, i see. The files package does that apperently, correct? But cannot find it in the net package for example.

Occasional Pony committer here. You're right, and improving how errors are handled for socket operations has been in my mind for a while.

If you have used it and have any ideas on what you'd like to see there, feel free to drop by Zulip!

Re: Pony – High-Performance Safe Actor Programming

#32
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

`error` in Pony is for partial functions. A partial function is where you can't compute a result based on the input. If you need to know what went wrong (because more than one thing might have gone wrong and that needs to be communicated), you can use a union type for the result and match accordingly (as you would in Rust as an example).

Ah, i see. The files package does that apperently, correct? But cannot find it in the net package for example.

The files package in general uses `error` and isn't very helpful in letting you know what went wrong.

"Makes the files package better" is something that has been on a "list of things to improve" for a long time.

Re: Pony – High-Performance Safe Actor Programming

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a number of simple examples in the ponyc repo: https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/tree/master/examples You can find a number of pony library projects under the ponylang org on GitHub: https://github.com/ponylang/

I think you should consider showing some code on the front page, like D [0] or Ruby [1], or maybe have a "Try Pony" button that links to an online playground. 0: https://dlang.org/ 1: https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/

We do have an online playground! You can try it here: https://playground.ponylang.io/

It's linked from the page, but we should make it more obvious.

Re: Pony – High-Performance Safe Actor Programming

#34
I like Elixir, Erlang. There is Lumen, an OS initiative to bring the BEAM to the browser (WASM).

Does Pony have such ambitions (I mean, the Pony team)?

My UC is an actor system in the browser and the ability to create a DSL created using the same language used in programming the actor system.

Pony is not dynamic but statically typed? Maybe it can be overcome by substituting actors since any actor can create any other actor?

Plus I'm interested in graphics. I googled but didn't see any examples of integrating either web or desktop graphics, like Skia.

Re: Pony – High-Performance Safe Actor Programming

#35

I like Elixir, Erlang. There is Lumen, an OS initiative to bring the BEAM to the browser (WASM). Does Pony have such ambitions (I mean, the Pony team)? My UC is an actor system in the browser and the ability to create a DSL created using the same language used in programming the actor system. Pony is not dynamic but statically typed? Maybe it can be overcome by substituting actors since any actor can create any other…

There is also the Lunatic VM [0] which is an actor system built with Rust targeting WASM on the server.

0: https://github.com/bkolobara/lunatic

Re: Pony – High-Performance Safe Actor Programming

#36
post #4

For anyone wondering "Why Pony?" - they have a section called just that: https://www.ponylang.io/discover/#why-pony

There still isn't anything there that Erlang doesn't already have, excepting the theoretically-strong reference capabilities...which is what got me watching pony for a couple years.

Pony needs to have something that shows how it's references are more/differently useful in a multi-actor program. I suspect that's a tall order.

Re: Pony – High-Performance Safe Actor Programming

#38
post #11
post #4

For anyone wondering "Why Pony?" - they have a section called just that: https://www.ponylang.io/discover/#why-pony

That didn’t answer the question I expected it to answer (“why Pony and not Brando, Gielgud, Nicholson, Streep…?”

I am confused. Doing a search for "(Brando, Gielgud, Nicholson, Streep) programming language" turns up nothing.

Re: Pony – High-Performance Safe Actor Programming

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there an a page with more than a few lines of code to show what actual Pony programs look like?

There are a number of simple examples in the ponyc repo: https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/tree/master/examples You can find a number of pony library projects under the ponylang org on GitHub: https://github.com/ponylang/

Thanks, exactly what I needed to be confident that I should move on.
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