Non Blocking Channel Operations in Wolfram Language

In Wolfram Language, we can implement non-blocking operations using TryCatch and Timeout. Although Wolfram Language doesn’t have built-in channels like Go, we can simulate similar behavior using Channel objects.

First, let’s define our channels:

messages = CreateChannel[];
signals = CreateChannel[];

Here’s a non-blocking receive. If a value is available on messages, it will be received. If not, the Timeout will trigger immediately:

TryCatch[
  Timeout[
    ChannelReceive[messages],
    0.001
  ],
  _Timeout :> Print["no message received"]
]

A non-blocking send works similarly. Here we attempt to send a message, but if it can’t be sent immediately, we catch the Timeout:

msg = "hi";
TryCatch[
  Timeout[
    ChannelSend[messages, msg],
    0.001
  ],
  _Timeout :> Print["no message sent"]
]

We can use multiple TryCatch blocks to implement a multi-way non-blocking select. Here we attempt non-blocking receives on both messages and signals:

TryCatch[
  Timeout[
    Which[
      ChannelReadyQ[messages], 
        With[{msg = ChannelReceive[messages]}, 
          Print["received message ", msg]],
      ChannelReadyQ[signals], 
        With[{sig = ChannelReceive[signals]}, 
          Print["received signal ", sig]],
      True, Throw["no activity"]
    ],
    0.001
  ],
  _Timeout :> Print["no activity"]
]

To run this program:

(* Execute the above code blocks *)

(* Output will be similar to: *)
(* no message received *)
(* no message sent *)
(* no activity *)

In this Wolfram Language version, we use CreateChannel[] to create channel-like objects. The TryCatch and Timeout functions simulate non-blocking behavior by attempting operations with a very short timeout. ChannelReadyQ is used to check if a channel has data available without blocking.

Note that Wolfram Language’s concurrency model is different from Go’s, so this is an approximation of the original behavior. In practice, you might use different concurrency primitives in Wolfram Language depending on your specific requirements.