[erlang-questions] Message Receive Semantics (was eep: MultiplePatterns)

[Valentin Micic]

> From: "Steve" <steven.charles.davis@REDACTED>

> ...can anyone clarify for me why you would wish to retain messages in
> the process mailbox that the process didn't wish to receive or act
> upon?
>

Consider a following scenario: for every five "high" priority messages 
processed, I wanted to handle three "normal" and one "low" priority 
message(*). To implement this with a selective receive is relatively easy 
and concise, even for a novice programmer. To do without it, may be 
considerably more difficult and messy.
Aside selective receive caveats due to the current realization (I really 
like Sean's idea for optimization), Erlang is much better with, than without 
it. IMO, the selective receive reflect the spirit of ERLANG. After all, you 
don't have to use it.


> Yes - I'm asking why the erlang messaging works the way it does.

 So, I suppose the answer might be: because everything else works pretty 
much the same way.

V.

(*) Assuming that priority is given as a part of the message.