Gen_server and multiple processes

[Sean Hinde]

> I would like to know if the gen_server behavior creates a separate
> process for each message that is sent to it, or must this 
> kind of thing
> still be written into your own code?
> In other words, if several calls to the function foo() is made, will
> there be several processes each running handle_call spawned, or will
> there be several queued calls to handle_call?
> It seems that playing to Erlangs strengths in this situation makes the
> most sense :)  Would spawning a process to handle foo and returning
> immediately might be the correct way to do this type of thing? (if
> gen_server does not do it already).

As Mattias says gen_server doesn't do this, but it does provide the mechnism
to not return an immediate reply if you wish to spawn a new thread for the
call, and an additional mechanism to actually send the reply sometime later.

You just need to return {no_reply, State} from the initial handle_call/3,
and later call gen_server:reply(Client, Reply) with the result of the long
calculation done in your thread.

Sean



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