[Isolate-interest] PR2 Comments

[Ernst, Matthias]

Hello,

right upfront: I'm convinced that this JCR addresses the single most important issue with the Java platform: reliable process control, something I guess everyone has been fighting with who deploys Java in the enterprise. The specification seems very well thought out and just as big as necessary.

I have two small comments on the API doc: I've just discovered this mailing list. Please excuse if any of this has been discussed before. 

* I find the following wording unclear: "With the exception of status links, a new Link instance cannot be used immediately after construction. It must first be passed to the other involved isolate(s)." Does it simply explain the consequence of a data link's synchronicity, i.e. if an isolate tries to send() on a link that wasn't passed to the receiver, it will simply block forever? Or does the statement include some sort of explicit Link lifecycle, for example an exception on send() ("Link has not been passed yet") ?

What's supposed to happen in a case like the following? Is that illegal use? "input" is being used "immediately after construction" before being passed.

    Isolate isolate = new Isolate("Child");
    final Link input = Link.newLink(Isolate.currentIsolate(), isolate);

    new Timer().schedule(new TimerTask() {
      public void run() {
        input.send(...);
      }
    }, 1000);

    isolate.start(input);


* The example for a "data link" starts an Isolate with the "input" link and sends the "output" link via a LinkMessage. Do I understand correctly that is is just for the sake of the example and you could have just passed both links to the start method? 

* I would like to see a way to start an Isolate with minimal System properties. Often the "container" provides a wealth of properties that may prove counterproductive. That may well be a problem of the APIs that rely on system properties, but it's a reality. In Sun One AS, for example, I have to programmatically null out a com.sun.xxx-Property if I want to create a private ORB instance.


Regards
Matthias
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