[erlang-questions] Programming question

[Mats Cronqvist]

Sean Hinde wrote:
> 
> There was an error in my example. gen_server does indeed do the right  
> thing in this case. The problem occurs in this code:
> 
> loopB(PidA, S) ->
>        Res = (catch gen_server:call(PidA, {op, stuff})),
>        S1 = process(Res, S),
>        loopB(PidA, S1).

> Here the gen_server:call catches the {'EXIT', Reason} signal from the  
> dying B process and turns it into a call to exit(Reason).
> 
> process B just gets an {'EXIT', Reason} result to the call, but it  
> doesn't know if Process A is still alive (there can be several  
> reasons for the {'EXIT', Reason}.

> One fix might be for gen:call() to issue another exit signal towards  
> the calling process after returning the result.

   surely if you catch the exit and it turns out you really wanted it, you 
should re-throw?

   how about

try
   Res = gen_server:call(PidA, {op, stuff}),
   S1 = process(Res, S),
   loopB(PidA, S1)
catch
   C:R ->
     case is_process_alive(PidA) of
       true -> loopB(PidA,dosomething({C,R},S));
       false -> exit({C,R})
     end
end


   mats