instructions.md

You are writing an embedded system for a Take-A-Number machine. It is a very simple model. It can give out consecutive numbers and report what was the last number given out.

1. Start the machine

Implement the start/0 function. It should spawn a new process that has an initial state of 0 and is ready to receive messages. It should return the process' PID.

TakeANumber.start()
# => #PID<0.138.0>

Note that each time you run this code, the PID may be different.

2. Report the machine state

Modify the machine so that it can receive {:report_state, sender_pid} messages. It should send its current state (the last given out ticket number) to sender_pid and then wait for more messages.

machine_pid = TakeANumber.start()
send(machine_pid, {:report_state, self()})

receive do
  msg -> msg
end
# => 0

3. Give out numbers

Modify the machine so that it can receive {:take_a_number, sender_pid} messages. It should increase its state by 1, send the new state to sender_pid, and then wait for more messages.

machine_pid = TakeANumber.start()
send(machine_pid, {:take_a_number, self()})

receive do
  msg -> msg
end
# => 1

4. Stop the machine

Modify the machine so that it can receive a :stop message. It should stop waiting for more messages.

5. Ignore unexpected messages

Modify the machine so that when it receives an unexpected message, it ignores it and continues waiting for more messages.