# flow
Serial communication library for Scala, designed to be reactive, lightweight and easily integrable with Akka-IO.
## Motivation
The main reason for yet another serial communication library for the JVM is that all other libraries I tested used blocking IO and consumed enormous amounts of CPU while being idle, between 2% and 15%. Flow's main goal is therefore to provide a lightweight library that only does work when communication is required. This concept integrates well with the Akka IO layer therefore making flow an ideal candidate for extending it.
## Native side
Since hardware is involved in serial communication, a Scala-only solution is not possible. Nevertherless, the native code is kept simple and minimalistic with the implementation of non-blocking IO left mainly to Scala. Currently the native version has only been tested with Linux, however the code should be POSIX compliant and therefore easily portable.
## Build & usage
Run sbt in the root directory and switch to project 'flow', by typing 'project flow'. Running 'package' will compile both Scala and native sources and bundle them in the standard jar file. When using the jar in another application, the native library will be automatically extracted and loaded (i.e. no -Djava.library.path or other system parameters have to be set).
To see an example, switch to project 'flow-rwc' and then type 'run'. Don't forget to connect a serial device (such as an arduino) before runinng the example.
The build currently only works on Linux.
### Project structure
flow
├── flow-main //main scala/java sources
├── flow-native //native sources
│ ├── include //general headers
│ └── unix //source code for unix-like systems
├── flow-samples
├── project
└── README.md
## License
Copyright (c) 2013 by Jakob Odersky
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
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(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
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