I’ve had to re-read those docs several times, and I personally find
receive/after rather confusing. It feels like an anti-pattern to the
other idioms in elixir, because:
1. with other uses of `after` in elixir the code therein is literally
run AFTER the other stuff is done, and usually its ALWAYS run. But
with receive, the value after `after` is an integral definition for
how the first block of code/patterns is even handled. The 'after'
block may or may not run, it's not always run. And finally, you can
only specify one function anyway, so why treat it with that ->
pointer operator at all?
2.
It feels like I should be able to set several timeouts, based on
using the `->` operator where even right above you can specify many.
But no! Only a single expression may be used...
3. The receive block above is a pattern matching series, but the block
under after is NOT, it’s more like cond where the value is
evaluated. Seeing both right next to each other is confusing:
```
millis = 1000
recieve do
^millis -> blah # to demonstrate the difference
after
millis -> blah
end
```
Now to counter some of the arguments I suspect will come up :D
* “I think it reads fine” -> great, but not helpful. So you’ve already
gotten past the mental clunk it causes. I’m interested in finding
rough edges to make the whole language more approachable to a wider
audience.
* “Its how it is in erlang” -> In my opinion “status quo” is never an
argument. Moving on :D
I had several suggestions, which included adding the timeout value at
the top, or using a new `timeout` token instead of `after`, but in the
end, I think what is probably the best middle of the road is to allow
another `do` instead of the `->`
```
receive do
pattern ->
pattern ->...
after 1000 do
moar code here
end
```
Just some observations/random suggestions. Take them for what you will.
-Brandon
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