Real-time

[brillout]

The idea is to create a new library called Televar that works independently of Telefunc.

Because I don't think functions are the right approach for real-time. Instead Televar uses "remote variables" that are automatically synchronized.

This is a much more natural approach: when you think about it, real-time fundamentally is about synchronization of information.

[brillout]

CC @louwers @nitedani

[brillout]

This is low-priority on my side, but I'd be up to co-create this, in case someone is up for it.

[nitedani]

I don't see the advantage of variables over functions, but I think that is because I don't know what you have in mind. How would reactive code look like using variables? How would I know when the value of a variable has changed in the browser? Would the variable itself be converted to an observable when imported in the browser? Would we export utility functions to convert a variable to react state or similar? Somehow I would still need to tell the server to start sending me something(in this case messages), and for that I would still need an api call/telefunction.

For example, using functions it would look like this:

// server
export const getMessages = (cb) => {
    setInterval(()=>{
        cb('hello')
    }, 1000);
}


// browser
export const Messages = () => {
    const [messages, setMessages] = useState([]);
    useEffect(() => {
        getMessages((msg) => {
            setMessages([...messages, msg])
        });
    }, []);
    ...
}

Or like this:

// server
export const getMessages = () => {
    return new Observable(subscriber =>{
        setInterval(()=>{
            subscriber.next('hello')
        }, 1000);
    })
}


// browser
export const Messages = () => {
    const [messages, setMessages] = useState([]);
    useEffect(() => {
        getMessages().subscribe((message) => {
            setMessages([...messages, message]);
        });
    }, []);
    ...
} 

Using variables, it could look like this:
messagesVar could be stored on server,browser, or both. For example if it's stored only on the server side, then every access in the browser would need to be proxied to the server variable. If it's stored only in the browser, then every access from the server side would need to be proxied to the browser variable. If it's stored both sides, then only mutations need to be sent to the other side, and access can be local.

export const messagesVar = defineVar([])
export const getMessages = () => {
    setInterval(()=>{
        messagesVar.push('hello')
    }, 1000);
}

[redbar0n]

Remember https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_distributed_computing

[brillout]

using functions it would look like this:

I also thought about this, but I eventually found many problems about that approach.

Actually, thinking more about Televar, I found major limitations around designing everything around "remote variables".

So far, I can't find a design that fits every need.

Real-time needs differ highly depending on the use case. E.g. a chatroom a la discord has different requirements than a game with a single user-shared global state.

I think we should make Telefunc focused on RPC for now and postpone real-time support.

That said, I'd be more happy to have a look at a prototypes, if someone is up for designing and implementing a prototype.