[erlang-questions] non-FIFO behavior in process mailboxes?

[Michael Turner]

When the code listed below executes with the first io:format call
commented out, it breaks, reporting:

 ** exception error: no match of right hand side value []
     in function  wg:init/0

When I don't have it commented out, it works (sort of), writing

  val_for (P)=[]
  val_for (P)=2
  ok

Here's the code:
-----

-module(wg).
-export ([init/0, be/2]).

val_for (P) ->
    P ! {tell, self(), val},
    receive
        {Val, for, P} -> Val
    end.

be (Arg, Val) ->
    receive
        [H|T] ->
            self() ! T,
            self() ! H,
            be (Arg, Val);
        [] ->
            be (Arg, Val);
        {tell, X, val} ->
            X ! {Val, for, self()},
            be (Arg, Val);
        {set_arg_to, A} ->
            be (A, Val);
        {set_val_to, V} ->
            be (Arg, V)
    end.

init() ->
    P = spawn (wg, be, [[],[]]),
    P ! [{set_arg_to, 1}, {set_val_to, 2}],
%   io:format ("val_for (P)=~p~n", [val_for (P)]),
    2 = val_for (P),
    io:format ("val_for (P)=~p~n", [val_for (P)]),
    ok.
-----

This is R14B on Windows XP. Haven't tried it elsewhere yet.

Seeing this really messes with my mental model of process mailboxes.
With the first io:format call commented out, I think process P should
be seeing messages queued up in the following order:

  [{set_arg_to, 1}, {set_val_to, 2}]
  [{set_val_to, 2}]
  {set_arg_to, 1}
  []
  {set_val_to, 2}
  {tell, X, val}

And shouldn't this mean that Val = 2 in process P when the {tell, X,
val} message reaches P? As I interpret Armstrong pp.145-6, since
matches are guaranteed in this case, there's no save queue activity;
since there's no "after" close, the timer is irrelevant; so you should
get pure FIFO behavior, right?

-michael turner