Combine channels/ports. Allow multiple receivers #2158

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1. graydon commented on Apr 10, 2012

   

   graydon

   on Apr 10, 2012

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   It's possible but I'm ... generally wary of this. Or at least ambivalent. Go is not the only language that does what it does, there are dozens of languages that experiment in this space. Rust's channels are half-duplex by design, following Erlang's lead. Making them full duplex means:

   • reduced implementation leeway; you have fewer options on how to implement / optimize. It pretty much has to be an atomically refcounted deque with a lock on its body.
   • increased inter-task synchronization on all operations; fewer chances to get the locks out of the path
   • less clear ownership of in-flight data
   • channels no longer weak, more stuff accidentally kept alive
   • a dead consumer task no longer means data drops on the floor; it buffers forever instead

   Possibly the ownership and buffer/drop (and sync/async) issues can be addressed with a richer channel API. I'm not sure the implementation flexibility or performance issues can be.
2. brson commented on Jul 31, 2012

   

   brson

   on Jul 31, 2012

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   This is not the direction we are going. Closing.

   👎React with 👎1Reacted by Ioan Moldovan
3. brson

   closed this as completedon Jul 31, 2012
4. bors

   added a commit that references this issue on Sep 22, 2022

   Auto merge of rust-lang#2158 - rust-lang:gesundheit, r=RalfJung

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5. folkertdev

   added a commit that references this issue on Jul 8, 2026

   Merge pull request rust-lang#2158 from heiher/vmuh

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   4f762a3
6. U007D

   added a commit that references this issue on Aug 21, 2026

   Merge rust-lang#3664

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   fae6271