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+# @title Getting Started with Ruby EventMachine
+# @markup markdown
+# @author Michael S. Klishin, Dan Sinclair
+
+# Getting started with Ruby EventMachine #
+
+
+## About this guide ##
+
+This guide is a quick tutorial that helps you to get started with EventMachine for writing event-driven
+servers, clients and using it as a lightweight concurrency library.
+It should take about 20 minutes to read and study the provided code examples. This guide covers
+
+ * Installing EventMachine via [Rubygems](http://rubygems.org) and [Bundler](http://gembundler.com).
+ * Building an Echo server, the "Hello, world"-like code example of network servers.
+ * Building a simple chat, both server and client.
+ * Building a very small asynchronous Websockets client.
+
+
+## Covered versions ##
+
+This guide covers EventMachine v0.12.10 and 1.0 (including betas).
+
+
+## Level ##
+
+This guide assumes you are comfortable (but not necessary a guru) with the command line. On Microsoft Windows™,
+we recommend you to use [JRuby](http://jruby.org) when running these examples.
+
+
+## Installing EventMachine ##
+
+### Make sure you have Ruby installed ###
+
+This guide assumes you have one of the supported Ruby implementations installed:
+
+ * Ruby 1.8.7
+ * Ruby 1.9.2
+ * [JRuby](http://jruby.org) (we recommend 1.6)
+ * [Rubinius](http://rubini.us) 1.2 or higher
+ * [Ruby Enterprise Edition](http://www.rubyenterpriseedition.com)
+
+EventMachine works on Microsoft Windows™.
+
+
+### With Rubygems ###
+
+To install the EventMachine gem do
+
+    gem install eventmachine
+
+
+### With Bundler ###
+
+    gem "eventmachine"
+
+
+### Verifying your installation ###
+
+Lets verify your installation with this quick IRB session:
+
+    irb -rubygems
+
+    ruby-1.9.2-p180 :001 > require "eventmachine"
+     => true
+    ruby-1.9.2-p180 :002 > EventMachine::VERSION
+     => "1.0.0.beta.3"
+
+
+## An Echo Server Example ##
+
+Lets begin with the classic "Hello, world"-like example, an echo server. The echo server responds clients with the
+same data that was provided. First, here's the code:
+
+{include:file:examples/guides/getting\_started/01\_eventmachine\_echo_server.rb}
+
+
+When run, the server binds to port 10000. We can connect using Telnet and verify it's working:
+
+    telnet localhost 10000
+
+On my machine the output looks like:
+
+    ~ telnet localhost 10000
+    Trying 127.0.0.1...
+    Connected to localhost.
+    Escape character is '^]'.
+
+Let's send something to our server. Type in "Hello, EventMachine" and hit Enter. The server will respond with
+the same string:
+
+    ~ telnet localhost 10000
+    Trying 127.0.0.1...
+    Connected to localhost.
+    Escape character is '^]'.
+    Hello, EventMachine
+    # (here we hit Enter)
+    Hello, EventMachine
+    # (this ^^^ is our echo server reply)
+
+It works! Congratulations, you now can tell your Node.js-loving friends that you "have done some event-driven programming, too".
+Oh, and to stop Telnet, hit Control + Shift + ] and then Control + C.
+
+Lets walk this example line by line and see what's going on. These lines
+
+    require 'rubygems' # or use Bundler.setup
+    require 'eventmachine'
+
+probably look familiar: you use [RubyGems](http://rubygems.org) (or [Bundler](http://gembundler.com/)) for dependencies and then require EventMachine gem. Boring.
+
+Next:
+
+    class EchoServer < EventMachine::Connection
+      def receive_data(data)
+        send_data(data)
+      end
+    end
+
+Is the implementation of our echo server. We define a class that inherits from {EventMachine::Connection}
+and a handler (aka callback) for one event: when we receive data from a client.
+
+EventMachine handles the connection setup, receiving data and passing it to our handler, {EventMachine::Connection#receive_data}.
+
+Then we implement our protocol logic, which in the case of Echo is pretty trivial: we send back whatever we receive.
+To do so, we're using {EventMachine::Connection#send_data}.
+
+Lets modify the example to recognize `exit` command:
+
+{include:file:examples/guides/getting\_started/02\_eventmachine\_echo_server\_that\_recognizes\_exit\_command.rb}
+
+Our `receive\_data` changed slightly and now looks like this:
+
+    def receive_data(data)
+      if data.strip =~ /exit$/i
+        EventMachine.stop_event_loop
+      else
+        send_data(data)
+      end
+    end
+
+Because incoming data has trailing newline character, we strip it off before matching it against a simple regular
+expression. If the data ends in `exit`, we stop EventMachine event loop with {EventMachine.stop_event_loop}. This unblocks
+main thread and it finishes execution, and our little program exits as the result.
+
+To summarize this first example:
+
+ * Subclass {EventMachine::Connection} and override {EventMachine::Connection#send_data} to handle incoming data.
+ * Use {EventMachine.run} to start EventMachine event loop and then bind echo server with {EventMachine.start_server}.
+ * To stop the event loop, use {EventMachine.stop_event_loop} (aliased as {EventMachine.stop})
+
+Lets move on to a slightly more sophisticated example that will introduce several more features and methods
+EventMachine has to offer.
+
+
+## A Simple Chat Server Example ##
+
+Next we will write a simple chat. Initially clients will still use telnet to connect, but then we will add little
+client application that will serve as a proxy between telnet and the chat server. This example is certainly longer
+(~ 150 lines with whitespace and comments) so instead of looking at the final version and going through it line by line,
+we will instead begin with a very simple version that only keeps track of connected clients and then add features
+as we go.
+
+To set some expectations about our example:
+
+ * It will keep track of connected clients
+ * It will support a couple of commands, à la IRC
+ * It will support direct messages using Twitter-like @usernames
+ * It won't use MongoDB, fibers or distributed map/reduce for anything but will be totally [Web Scale™](http://bit.ly/webscaletm) nonetheless. Maybe even [ROFLscale](http://bit.ly/roflscalevideo).
+
+### Step one: detecting connections and disconnectons ###
+
+First step looks like this:
+
+{include:file:examples/guides/getting\_started/04\_simple\_chat\_server\_step\_one.rb}
+
+We see familiar {EventMachine.run} and {EventMachine.start_server}, but also {EventMachine::Connection#post_init} and {EventMachine::Connection#unbind} we haven't
+met yet. We don't use them in this code, so when are they run? Like {EventMachine::Connection#receive_data}, these methods are callbacks. EventMachine calls them
+when certain events happen:
+
+ * {EventMachine#post_init} is called by the event loop immediately after the network connection has been established.
+   In the chat server example case, this is when a new client connects.
+ * {EventMachine#unbind} is called when client disconnects, connection is closed or is lost (because of a network issue, for example).
+
+All our chat server does so far is logging connections or disconnections. What we want it to do next is to keep track of connected clients.
+
+
+### Step two: keep track of connected clients ###
+
+Next iteration of the code looks like this:
+
+{include:file:examples/guides/getting\_started/05\_simple\_chat\_server\_step\_two.rb}
+
+While the code we added is very straightforward, we have to clarify one this first: subclasses of {EventMachine::Connection} are instantiated by
+EventMachine for every new connected peer. So for 10 connected chat clients, there will be 10 separate `SimpleChatServer` instances in our
+server process. Like any other objects, they can be stored in a collection, can provide public API other objects use, can instantiate or inject
+dependencies and in general live a happy life all Ruby objects live until garbage collection happens.
+
+In the example above we use a @@class_variable to keep track of connected clients. In Ruby, @@class variables are accessible from instance
+methods so we can add new connections to the list from `SimpleChatServer#post_init` and remove them in `SimpleChatServer#unbind`. We can also
+filter connections by some criteria, as `SimpleChatServer#other_peers demonstrates`.
+
+So, we keep track of connections but how do we identify them? For a chat app, it's pretty common to use usernames for that. Lets ask our clients
+to enter usernames when they connect.
+
+
+### Step three: adding usernames ##
+
+To add usernames, we need to add a few things:
+
+ * We need to invite newly connected clients to enter their username.
+ * A reader (getter) method on our {EventMachine::Connection} subclass.
+ * An idea of connection state (keeping track of whether a particular participant had entered username before).
+
+Here is one way to do it:
+
+{include:file:examples/guides/getting\_started/06\_simple\_chat\_server\_step\_three.rb}
+
+This is quite an update so lets take a look at each method individually. First, `SimpleChatServer#post_init`:
+
+    def post_init
+      @username = nil
+      puts "A client has connected..."
+      ask_username
+    end
+
+To keep track of username we ask chat participants for, we add @username instance variable to our connection class. Connection
+instances are just Ruby objects associated with a particular connected peer, so using @ivars is very natural. To make username
+value accessible to other objects, we added a reader method that was not shown on the snippet above.
+
+Lets dig into `SimpleChatServer#ask_username`:
+
+    def ask_username
+      self.send_line("[info] Enter your username:")
+    end # ask_username
+
+    # ...
+
+    def send_line(line)
+      self.send_data("#{line}\n")
+    end # send_line(line)
+
+Nothing new here, we are using {EventMachine::Connection#send_data} which we have seen before.
+
+
+In `SimpleChatServer#receive_data` we now have to check if the username was entered or we need
+to ask for it:
+
+    def receive_data(data)
+      if entered_username?
+        handle_chat_message(data.strip)
+      else
+        handle_username(data.strip)
+      end
+    end
+
+    # ...
+
+    def entered_username?
+      !@username.nil? && !@username.empty?
+    end # entered_username?
+
+Finally, handler of chat messages is not yet implemented:
+
+    def handle_chat_message(msg)
+      raise NotImplementedError
+    end
+
+Lets try this example out using Telnet:
+
+    ~ telnet localhost 10000
+    Trying 127.0.0.1...
+    Connected to localhost.
+    Escape character is '^]'.
+    [info] Enter your username:
+    antares_
+    [info] Ohai, antares_
+
+and the server output:
+
+    A client has connected...
+    antares_ has joined
+
+This version requires you to remember how to terminate your Telnet session (Ctrl + Shift + ], then Ctrl + C).
+It is annoying, so why don't we add the same `exit` command to our chat server?
+
+
+### Step four: adding exit command and delivering chat messages ####
+
+{include:file:examples/guides/getting\_started/07\_simple\_chat\_server\_step\_four.rb}
+
+TBD
+
+Lets test-drive this version. Client A:
+
+    ~ telnet localhost 10000
+    Trying 127.0.0.1...
+    Connected to localhost.
+    Escape character is '^]'.
+    [info] Enter your username:
+    michael
+    [info] Ohai, michael
+    Hi everyone
+    michael: Hi everyone
+    joe has joined the room
+    # here ^^^ client B connects, lets greet him
+    hi joe
+    michael: hi joe
+    joe: hey michael
+    # ^^^ client B replies
+    exit
+    # ^^^ out command in action
+    Connection closed by foreign host.
+
+Client B:
+
+    ~ telnet localhost 10000
+    Trying 127.0.0.1...
+    Connected to localhost.
+    Escape character is '^]'.
+    [info] Enter your username:
+    joe
+    [info] Ohai, joe
+    michael: hi joe
+    # ^^^ client A greets us, lets reply
+    hey michael
+    joe: hey michael
+    exit
+    # ^^^ out command in action
+    Connection closed by foreign host.
+
+And finally, the server output:
+
+    A client has connected...
+    michael has joined
+    A client has connected...
+    _antares has joined
+    [info] _antares has left
+    [info] michael has left
+
+Our little char server now supports usernames, sending messages and the `exit` command. Next up, private (aka direct) messages.
+
+
+### Step five: adding direct messages and one more command ###
+
+To add direct messages, we come up with a simple convention: private messages begin with @username and may have optional colon before
+message text, like this:
+
+    @joe: hey, how do you like eventmachine?
+
+This convention makes parsing of messages simple so that we can concentrate on delivering them to a particular client connection.
+Remember when we added `username` reader on our connection class? That tiny change makes this step possible: when a new direct
+message comes in, we extract username and message text and then find then connection for @username in question:
+
+    #
+    # Message handling
+    #
+  
+    def handle_chat_message(msg)
+      if command?(msg)
+        self.handle_command(msg)
+      else
+        if direct_message?(msg)
+          self.handle_direct_message(msg)
+        else
+          self.announce(msg, "#{@username}:")
+        end
+      end
+    end # handle_chat_message(msg)
+  
+    def direct_message?(input)
+      input =~ DM_REGEXP
+    end # direct_message?(input)
+  
+    def handle_direct_message(input)
+      username, message = parse_direct_message(input)
+  
+      if connection = @@connected_clients.find { |c| c.username == username }
+        puts "[dm] @#{@username} => @#{username}"
+        connection.send_line("[dm] @#{@username}: #{message}")
+      else
+        send_line "@#{username} is not in the room. Here's who is: #{usernames.join(', ')}"
+      end
+    end # handle_direct_message(input)
+  
+    def parse_direct_message(input)
+      return [$1, $2] if input =~ DM_REGEXP
+    end # parse_direct_message(input)
+
+This snippet demonstrates how one connection instance can obtain another connection instance and send data to it.
+This is a very powerful feature, consider just a few use cases:
+
+ * Peer-to-peer protocols
+ * Content-aware routing
+ * Efficient streaming with optional filtering
+
+Less common use cases include extending C++ core of EventMachine to provide access to  hardware that streams events that
+can be re-broadcasted to any interested parties connected via TCP, UDP or something like AMQP or WebSockets. With this,
+sky is the limit. Actually, EventMachine has several features for efficient proxying data between connections.
+We will not cover them in this guide.
+
+One last feature that we are going to add to our chat server is the `status` command that tells you current server time and how many people
+are there in the chat room:
+
+    #
+    # Commands handling
+    #
+  
+    def command?(input)
+      input =~ /(exit|status)$/i
+    end # command?(input)
+  
+    def handle_command(cmd)
+      case cmd
+      when /exit$/i   then self.close_connection
+      when /status$/i then self.send_line("[chat server] It's #{Time.now.strftime('%H:%M')} and there are #{self.number_of_connected_clients} people in the room")
+      end
+    end # handle_command(cmd)
+
+Hopefully this piece of code is easy to follow. Try adding a few more commands, for example, the `whoishere` command that lists people
+currently in the chat room.
+
+In the end, our chat server looks like this:
+
+{include:file:examples/guides/getting\_started/08\_simple\_chat\_server\_step\_five.rb}
+
+We are almost done with the server but there are some closing thoughts.
+
+
+### Step six: final version ###
+
+Just in case, here is the final version of the chat server code we have built:
+
+{include:file:examples/guides/getting\_started/03\_simple\_chat\_server.rb}
+
+
+### Step seven: future directions and some closing thoughts ###
+
+The chat server is just about 150 lines of Ruby including empty lines and comments, yet it has a few features most of chat server
+examples never add. We did not, however, implement many other features that popular IRC clients like [Colloquy](http://colloquy.info) have:
+
+ * Chat moderation
+ * Multiple rooms
+ * Connection timeout detection
+
+How would one go about implementing them? We thought it is worth discussing what else EventMachine has to offer and what ecosystem projects
+one can use to build a really feature-rich Web-based IRC chat client.
+
+With multiple rooms it's more or less straightforward, just add one more hash and a bunch of commands and use the information about which rooms participant
+is in when you are delivering messages. There is nothing in EventMachine itself that can make the job much easier for developer.
+
+To implement chat moderation feature you may want to do a few things:
+
+ * Work with client IP addresses. Maybe we want to consider everyone who connects from certain IPs a moderator.
+ * Access persistent data about usernames of moderators and their credentials.
+
+Does EventMachine have anything to offer here? It does. To obtain peer IP address, take a look at {EventMachine::Connection#get_peername}. The name of this method is
+a little bit misleading and originates from low-level socket programming APIs.
+
+#### A whirlwind tour of the EventMachine ecosystem ####
+
+To work with data stores you can use several database drivers that ship with EventMachine itself, however, quite often there are some 3rd party projects in
+the EventMachine ecosystem that have more features, are faster or just better maintained. So we figured it will be helpful to provide a few pointers
+to some of those projects:
+
+ * For MySQL, check out [em-mysql](https://github.com/eventmachine/em-mysql) project.
+ * For PostgreSQL, have a look at Mike Perham's [EventMachine-based PostgreSQL driver](https://github.com/mperham/em_postgresql).
+ * For Redis, there is a young but already popular [em-hiredis](https://github.com/mloughran/em-hiredis) library that combines EventMachine's non-blocking I/O with
+   extreme performance of the official Redis C client, [hiredis](https://github.com/antirez/hiredis).
+ * For MongoDB, see [em-mongo](https://github.com/bcg/em-mongo)
+ * For Cassandra, Mike Perham [added transport agnosticism feature](http://www.mikeperham.com/2010/02/09/cassandra-and-eventmachine/) to the [cassandra gem](https://rubygems.org/gems/cassandra).
+
+[Riak](http://www.basho.com/products_riak_overview.php) and CouchDB talk HTTP so it's possible to use [em-http-request](https://github.com/igrigorik/em-http-request).
+If you are aware of EventMachine-based non-blocking drivers for these databases, as well as for HBase, let us know on the [EventMachine mailing list](http://groups.google.com/group/eventmachine).
+Also, EventMachine supports TLS (aka SSL) and works well on [JRuby](http://jruby.org) and Windows.
+
+Learn more in our {file:docs/Ecosystem.md EventMachine ecosystem} and {file:docs/TLS.md TLS (aka SSL)} guides.
+
+
+#### Connection loss detection ####
+
+Finally, connection loss detection. When our chat participant closes her laptop lid, how do we know that she is no longer active? The answer is, when EventMachine
+detects TCP connectin closure, it calls {EventMachine::Connection#unbind}. Version 1.0.beta3 and later also pass an optional argument to that method. The argument
+indicates what error (if any) caused the connection to be closed.
+
+Learn more in our {file:docs/ConnectionFailureAndRecovery.md Connection Failure and Recovery} guide.
+
+
+#### What the Chat Server Example doesn't demonstrate ####
+
+This chat server also leaves out something production quality clients and servers must take care of: buffering. We intentionally did not include any buffering in
+our chat server example: it would only distract you from learning what you really came here to learn: how to use EventMachine to build blazing fast asynchronous
+networking programs quickly. However, {EventMachine::Connection#receive_data} does not offer any guarantees that you will be receiving "whole messages" all the time,
+largely because the underlying transport (UDP or TCP) does not offer such guarantees. Many protocols, for example, AMQP, mandate that large content chunks are
+split into smaller _frames_ of certain size. This means that [amq-client](https://github.com/ruby-amqp/amq-client) library, for instance, that has EventMachine-based driver,
+has to deal with figuring out when exactly we received "the whole message". To do so, it uses buffering and employs various checks to detect _frame boundaries_.
+So **don't be deceived by the simplicity of this chat example**: it intentionally leaves framing out, but real world protocols usually require it.
+
+
+
+## A (Proxying) Chat Client Example ##
+
+TBD
+
+
+## Wrapping up ##
+
+This tutorial ends here. Congratulations! You have learned quite a bit about EventMachine.
+
+
+## What to read next ##
+
+The documentation is organized as a {file:docs/DocumentationGuidesIndex.md number of guides}, covering all kinds of
+topics. TBD
+
+
+## Tell us what you think! ##
+
+Please take a moment and tell us what you think about this guide on the [EventMachine mailing list](http://bit.ly/jW3cR3)
+or in the #eventmachine channel on irc.freenode.net: what was unclear? What wasn't covered?
+Maybe you don't like the guide style or the grammar and spelling are incorrect? Reader feedback is
+key to making documentation better.