ring server messages not traversing ring - process

Question

I've almost implemented the well-known ring server, however the messages do not seem to be traversing the ring - here's my code:
module(ring).
-import(lists,[duplicate/2,append/1,zip/2,nthtail/2,nth/2,reverse/1]).
-export([start/3,server/0]).
start(M,N,Msg)->
start(M,N,[],Msg).
start(0,0,_,_)->
ok;
start(M,0,PList,Msg)->
nth(1,PList)!nthtail(1,reverse(zip(append(duplicate(M,PList)),duplicate(M*length(PList),Msg))));
start(M,N,PList,Msg)->
start(M,N-1,[spawn(ring, server, [])|PList],Msg).
server()->
receive
[]->
ok;
[{Pid,Msg}|T]->
io:format("~p,~p~n",[self(),Msg]),
Pid!T;
terminate->
true
end.
it returns the following when executed:
2> ring:start(3,3,"hello").
<0.42.0>,"hello"
<0.41.0>,"hello"
[{<0.41.0>,"hello"},
{<0.42.0>,"hello"},
{<0.40.0>,"hello"},
{<0.41.0>,"hello"},
{<0.42.0>,"hello"},
{<0.40.0>,"hello"},
{<0.41.0>,"hello"},
{<0.42.0>,"hello"}]
May I ask where I am going wrong here? I've checked the zipped process list, and it seems as if it should work. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

There are 2 mistakes here, the main one is that you do not recursively recall server after printing the message.
The second one is that you should not remove the head of your list when you build the first message, otherwise you will have only m*n - 1 messages passed.
this code works, but it leaves all the processes active, you should enhance it to kill all processes at the end of the "ring":
-module(ring).
-import(lists,[duplicate/2,append/1,zip/2,nthtail/2,nth/2,reverse/1]).
-export([start/3,server/0]).
start(M,N,Msg)->
start(M,N,[],Msg).
start(0,0,_,_)->
ok;
start(M,0,PList,Msg)->
nth(1,PList)!reverse(zip(append(duplicate(M,PList)),duplicate(M*length(PList),Msg)));
start(M,N,PList,Msg)->
start(M,N-1,[spawn(ring, server, [])|PList],Msg).
server()->
receive
[]->
ok;
[{Pid,Msg}|T]->
io:format("In Server ~p,~p~n",[self(),Msg]),
Pid!T,
server();
terminate->
true
end.
On my side, I don't use import, I find it more explicit when I have lists:reverse..., You can use hd/1 to get the first element of a list, and you could use list comprehension to generate your list of {Pid,Msg}

Answer 2

Your processes are terminating, not looping (and there is never a condition under which they will receive 'terminate'). To solve the termination issue, have them spawn_link instead of just spawn so that when the first one dies, they all die.
It is good to kick things off by messaging yourself, to make sure you're not stripping the first message entirely.
-module(ring).
-import(lists,[duplicate/2,append/1,zip/2,nthtail/2,nth/2,reverse/1]).
-export([start/3,server/0]).
start(M, N, Msg)->
Scroll = start(M, N, [], Msg),
self() ! Scroll.
start(0, 0, _, _)->
ok;
start(M, 0, PList, Msg)->
nth(1, PList) ! nthtail(1, reverse(zip(append(duplicate(M, PList)),
duplicate(M * length(PList), Msg))));
start(M, N, PList, Msg)->
start(M, N - 1, [spawn_link(ring, server, []) | PList], Msg).
server()->
receive
[]->
ok;
[{Pid, Msg} | T]->
io:format("~p,~p~n", [self(), Msg]),
Pid ! T,
server()
end.
This produces:
1> c(ring).
{ok,ring}
2> ring:start(3,3,"raar!").
<0.42.0>,"raar!"
<0.41.0>,"raar!"
[{<0.41.0>,"raar!"},
{<0.42.0>,"raar!"},
{<0.40.0>,"raar!"},
{<0.41.0>,"raar!"},
{<0.42.0>,"raar!"},
{<0.40.0>,"raar!"},
{<0.41.0>,"raar!"},
{<0.42.0>,"raar!"}]
<0.42.0>,"raar!"
<0.40.0>,"raar!"
<0.41.0>,"raar!"
<0.42.0>,"raar!"
<0.40.0>,"raar!"
<0.41.0>,"raar!"
As expected. Note that I'm calling server() again on receipt of a message. When the empty list is received they all die because they are linked. No mess.
Some spacing for readability would have been a little more polite. Erlangers usually aren't so leet that we want to plow through a solid mass of characters -- and this actually causes errors with a few operators in some edge cases (like in map syntax). Also, using imported functions is a little less clear. I know is gums up the code with all that namespace business, but its a lifesaver when you start writing larger programs (there are a lot of list operations in the erlang module -- so some of this importing is unnecessary anyway http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/erlang.html#hd-1).