Merge pull request #11 from JuliaParallel/preferences

Document how to support different distributed worker backends

Author: JamesWrigley

docs/make.jl

@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ makedocs(;
          sitename = "DistributedNext",
          pages = [
              "DistributedNext" => "index.md",
+             "support-preferences.md",
              "changelog.md"
          ],
          warnonly = [:missing_docs, :cross_references],

docs/src/support-preferences.md

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+# Supporting both Distributed and DistributedNext
+
+The [Distributed.jl](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/stdlib/Distributed/)
+standard library and DistributedNext are independent Julia modules, which means
+that they are not compatible at all. E.g. you cannot
+`DistributedNext.remotecall()` a worker added with `Distributed.addprocs()`. If
+you as a package developer want to make your package support both Distributed
+and DistributedNext, we suggest using
+[Preferences.jl](https://juliapackaging.github.io/Preferences.jl/stable/) to
+choose which package to load.
+
+Here's an example for a package named Foo.jl:
+```julia
+module Foo
+
+# Load a dependency which also supports Distributed/DistributedNext
+import Dependency
+
+import Preferences: @load_preference, @set_preferences!
+
+const distributed_package = @load_preference("distributed-package")
+if distributed_package == "DistributedNext"
+    using DistributedNext
+elseif distributed_package == "Distributed"
+    using Distributed
+else
+    error("Unsupported `distributed-package`: '$(distributed_package)'")
+end
+
+"""
+    set_distributed_package!(value[="Distributed|DistributedNext"])
+
+Set a [preference](https://github.com/JuliaPackaging/Preferences.jl) for using
+either the Distributed.jl stdlib or DistributedNext.jl. You will need to restart
+Julia after setting a new preference.
+"""
+function set_distributed_package!(value)
+    # Set preferences for all dependencies
+    Dependency.set_distributed_package!(value)
+
+    @set_preferences!("distributed-package" => value)
+    @info "Foo.jl preference has been set, restart your Julia session for this change to take effect!"
+end
+
+end
+```
+
+Users will then be able to call
+e.g. `Foo.set_distributed_package!("DistributedNext")`. Note that
+`Foo.set_distributed_package!` should also set the preferences of any dependencies
+of Foo.jl that use a distributed worker package.