`select` statement for Java

[John Rose]

On Feb 3, 2020, at 10:38 AM, Ryan Schmitt <rschmitt at pobox.com> wrote:
> 
> Are there any current or planned constructs in Java that allow blocking on
> multiple streams of events simultaneously, similar to the `select`
> statement in Go? I realize that technically speaking this is probably
> orthogonal to Loom, but it seems like an important capability in order to
> get the most out of the blocking, imperative thread abstraction that Loom
> is fundamentally about.

That’s easy to answer, in a literal sense:  No, Java is not likely
ever to have a bespoke “select” syntax, just as it is not likely ever
to have the SQL-like keywords of LINQ, or the COMMON statement
of Fortran or the PICTURE statement of Cobol.  Java invests
complexity in API richness, so that the existing language constructs,
combined with well-designed APIs, produce readability without
the need for a long catalog of special-purpose syntaxes.

In a less literal, but more useful sense:  Yes, Java is likely to have
a notation which covers the same ground as  “select”.  If I had to
guess, I’d say that when pattern-matching switches go live, somebody
will build APIs which use such switches much as Go uses its special
“select” statement.  This “notation” (not “syntax”) is mostly API,
with careful use of syntax.

Yes, the syntax of Java does expand, but almost never for single
purposes; it always expands in ways that serve many APIs, including
those not yet conceived of.  *That* is how we grow a language.

https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/steele.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ahvzDzKdB0

A less general, perhaps more useful answer can be obtained by
looking at the existing API points for threads and channels, and
asking “Does Loom support these with good quality?”  And also,
“What is the best notation for using these API points, in today’s
Java syntax?”  And finally, after those questions are answered,
“Which proposals for future syntax changes are likely to those
API usages more readable?”  And with vanishing rarity, “Are we
missing a future syntax proposal that would make this and many
other notations markedly clearer and more robust?”  None of
these questions is answered by “Hey, we forgot to add Go’s select
syntax!”

— John