In the shared state model, problems start cropping up due to state being a mutable one. We learned how hard it becomes to correctly synchronize the thread state, keeping in mind the ability to work with correctness, starvation, and deadlocks.
In this chapter, we will look at concurrency patterns, largely from a functional perspective. Functional Programming (FP) is a functional paradigm and a cornerstone of FP is immutability. We will use Scala to study this aspect. Immutable data structures use structural sharing and persistent data structures to ensure performance along with safety guarantees.
We will also look at future abstraction as a representation of asynchronous computation. Asynchronous computations use threads in an optimum way. A Scala future is also a monad, offering composability.
Here is what this chapter will cover:
- Immutability
- Futures
This coverage should prepare us well to understand the actor paradigm, coming up in the next chapter...