Evolving Clojure with Virtual Threads
summary
core.async originally compiles go blocks into state machines via the analyzer and go macro; the new implementation swaps that for virtual threads, keeping the same API and semantics while removing the analyzer maintenance burden. It introduces three workload executors (IO, compute, mixed), maps parking ops to blocking on vthreads, and adds core.async.flow to run pure step functions on workload-appropriate executors with built-in topology, lifecycle, and error handling. Initial microbenchmarks show faster coordination but different heap characteristics to investigate.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Introduction
- 4:15Clojure overview
- 7:28Clojure on JVM
- 10:02Core async basics
- 15:41Go blocks execution
- 17:53Evolving core async with virtual threads
- 21:47Compatibility and testing
- 26:46Introducing Flow
- 35:59Summary
- 36:43Q&A: Multi-arity vs protocols
- 38:07Q&A: Virtual threads timing
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