ZIO Direct Style is a library that allows using directly-style i.e. imperative programming with ZIO effects which is based on the Monadless paradigm.
To use zio-direct, add the following to your build.sbt file.
libraryDependencies += "dev.zio" %% "zio-direct" % "1.0.0-RC7"You can also use zio-direct with ZStream and ZPure by importing the following modules.
Currently this is only supported in Scala 3.
// ZStream
libraryDependencies += "dev.zio" %% "zio-direct-streams" % "1.0.0-RC7"
// ZPure
libraryDependencies += "dev.zio" %% "zio-direct-pure" % "1.0.0-RC7"See the Other Supported Monads section for more details.
The preferred IDE to use with ZIO-Direct is Visual Studio Code + Metals. This is because Metals correctly reads the returns from defer calls directly from the Scala compiler which is not the case of IntelliJ. To remedy this issue, a Library Extension is provided for ZIO-Direct. See the IntelliJ Support section for more details.
Talk at Functional Scala 2022:
- Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgqfLfzq5eo
- Slides - https://www.slideshare.net/deusaquilus/ziodirect-functional-scala-2022
ZIO-Direct allows direct style programming with ZIO. This library provides a syntactic sugar that is more powerful than for-comprehensions as well as more natural to use. Simply add the .run suffix to any ZIO effect in order to retrieve its value.
ZIO-Direct works by using macros to rewrite sequential code into flatMap-chains based on the Monadless paradigm. The values resulting in .run calls from the ZIO effects are not actually awaited. Instead, they are rolled-up into a chain of flatMaps.
For example, in imperative programming operations typically are done in a simple set of steps.
object FileOps:
def read(file: File): String
def write(file: File, content: String): Unit
val textA = read(fileA)
val textB = read(fileB)
write(fileC, textA + textB)Using functional programming, the equivalent of this functionality is a set of nested flatMap-chains.
object FileOps
def read(file: File): ZIO[Any, Throwable, String]
def write(file: File, content: String): ZIO[Any, Throwable, Unit]
read(fileA).flatMap { textA =>
read(fileB).flatMap { textB =>
write(fileC, textA + textB)
}
}In order to avoid this complexity scala provides a for-comprehension syntactic sugar.
for {
textA <- read(fileA)
textB <- read(fileB)
_ <- write(fileC, textA + textB)
} yield ()Unfortunately this syntactic sugar is limited in many cases, for example, inserting a conditional value inside is impossible.
for {
textA <- read(fileA)
// Not a possible syntax
if (fileA.contains("some string")) {
textB <- read(fileB)
_ <- write(fileC, textA + textB)
}
} yield ()ZIO-Direct offers an equivalent syntactic sugar that is more ergonomic and allows many constructs that for-comprehensions do not.
defer {
val textA = read(fileA).run
if (fileA.contains("some string")) {
val textB = read(fileB).run
write(fileC, textA + textB).run
}
}ZIO-Direct is specifically tailored to ZIO capabilities as it supports Environment and Error composition in ZIO effects similar to the for-comprehension.
val out: ZIO[CustomerConfig & DistributorConfig, CustomerGetException | DistrubutorGetException, (Customer, Distributor)] =
defer {
// Get a customer-configuration object from the environment and extract its .url field
val custUrl: String = ZIO.service[CustomerConfig].run.url
// Get a distributor-configuration from the environment and extract its .url field
val distUrl: String = ZIO.service[DistributorConfig].run.url
(
// Use the two configurations to make an HTTP-call
parseCustomer(httpGetCustomer(custUrl).run),
parseDistrubutor(httpGetDistributor(distUrl).run)
)
}Unlike the for-comprehension, ZIO-Direct supports branching and looping in the use of flatMaps composition. Let's have a look at a another non-trivial example.
class Database:
def nextRow(): ZIO[Any, Throwable, Row]
def hasNextRow(): ZIO[Any, Throwable, Boolean]
def lockNextRow(): ZIO[Any, Throwable, Boolean]
object Database:
def open: ZIO[Any, Throwable, Database]
defer {
// Open a database connection
val db = Database.open().run
// See if there is is a next-row
while (db.hasNextRow().run) {
// try to lock, if aquired continue
if (db.lockNextRow().run)
val nextRow = db.nextRow().run
doSomethingWith(nextRow)
else
waitT()
}
}NOTE: The above database-api is imaginary.
The above code needs to be translated into something like this:
Database.open.flatMap { db =>
def whileFun(): ZIO[Any, Throwable, Unit] =
db.hasNextRow().flatMap { hasNextRow =>
if (hasNextRow)(
db.lockNextRow().flatMap { lockNextRow =>
if (!lockNextRow)
db.nextRow().map(nextRow => doSomethingWith(nextRow))
else
ZIO.succeed(waitT())
}
).flatMap(_ => whileFun())
else
ZIO.unit
}
whileFun()
}Note that normally this is the exact code that would have to be written to capture such functionality For-comprehensions do not provide a way to do looping and branching so in such cases a combination of flatMaps and recursion is necessary to avoid calling effects unnecessarily.
ZIO-direct makes it much easier to use ZIO mutable Ref and FiberRef variables. Since retrieveing and updating Ref and FiberRef variables requries a flatMap/for-comprehension call, it is typically very difficult to use them with branching/looping constructs. ZIO-direct makes these cases much easier.
class DatabaseApi {
val connRef = FiberRef.make[Option[Connection]](None)
def openConnection(): Connection = lowLevelDatabaseApi.openConnection()
def transaction(action: Action) =
defer {
val conn = connRef.get.run
if (conn == None) {
connRef.set(Some(openConnection())).run
}
val conn1 = connRef.get.run
conn.execute(action).run
}
}Instead of having to write the following code:
class DatabaseApi {
val connRef = FiberRef.make[Option[Connection]](None)
def openConnection(): Connection = lowLevelDatabaseApi.openConnection()
def transaction(action: Action) =
connRef.get.flatMap { conn =>
(if (conn == None) {
connRef.set(Some(openConnection()))
} else {
ZIO.unit
}).flatMap(_ => connRef.get.flatMap { conn1 =>
conn1.execute(action)
})
}
// Note that for-comprehensions do not help very much in this use-case
def transaction0(action: Action) =
for {
conn <- connRef.get
_ <- if (conn == None) {
connRef.set(Some(openConnection()))
} else {
ZIO.unit
}
conn1 <- connRef.get
_ <- conn1.execute(action)
}
}Learn more on the ZIO Direct Style homepage!
For the general guidelines, see ZIO contributor's guide.
See the Code of Conduct
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