Kotlinx.coroutines: Channels as a generic bytestream abstraction

[dryajov]

As the title states, I'm looking at using channels as a generic bytestream abstraction. I want to use it for an upcoming networking stack implementation - things like chunking, delimited reading, multiplexing, all seem to be a good fit for channels. However, I'm not sure if that is it's intended use and weather it would lead to a brittle/clunky design. In addition, I've ran across https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlinx-io, which though it exposes a channel abstraction, it is radically different to that provided by this library.

My questions are:

• Are channels, flexible enough to allow usage as a generic stream interface for byte manipulation?
  
  
  
  • My impression, is that at least from a _convenience_ point of view, the interface is flexible enough to accomodate for all of that. On top of that, the build in backpressure is a wellcome feature.
  
  
• Following from the previous question - would this be their intended usage?
• If all of the above is true, why was https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlinx-io not implemented with "pure" channels and instead opted for their own abstraction (I believe this is an official kotlin library?)
  
  
  
  • BTW, i would have preferred asking this questions there, but it doesn't seem to be active/monitored - https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlinx-io/issues/54
  
  

[elizarov]

Channel<Byte> is an extremely slow IO absraction, that is why a dedicated IO abstraction is being developed as a part of kotlinx-io project.

[dryajov]

Any word on the status of the new io abstraction, where can I learn more about it?

[dryajov]

@elizarov Is it being developed publicly, would you be so kind pointing me where its taking place?

[elizarov]

You can watch https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlinx-io for updates.