Remove `:recon` dependency

[christhekeele]

:recon is a great toolbelt, but we really only need its safer trace message throttling mechanisms. Matcha is easy enough to pass to :recon functions if users want to use it, we don't need to require its installation.

[OnorioCatenacci]

Hi Chris!

I was just looking at this issue in context of issue #39. You're considering figuring out the functionality that :recon provides and directly integrating it into Matcha? Am I understanding correctly?

[christhekeele]

That's the idea!

I don't think removing dependencies just for the sake of it is always the right thing. I once aspired for this to be something mergable into Elixir, but no longer think that's the best idea—so dependency pruning is less important.

However, there are things in recon we definitely don't need, and only one we do — :recon.trace_calls/3. There are other lower-level things you can trace with lower-level erlang APIs, though (such as all messages sent to/received by a certain process) that recon doesn't offer tooling for.

Today we mostly use :recon to trace calls in a safe, non-overwhelmable, limited-by-default fashion. If we break more ground into the other capabilities, we'll have to re-invent what recon's doing to protect us from call tracing anyways.

I'd like to add support for non-limited tracing anyways, ex via a limit: :infinity option, which is not possible in :recon.trace_calls/3. So definitely some investigation to be done here!

[christhekeele]

@OnorioCatenacci I think I've got a handle on what recon's doing, got a WIP branch for it

[christhekeele]

Work here: latest...replace-recon

[OnorioCatenacci]

Wow Christopher! That's a lot to digest! I always look forward to seeing code from you because I always learn better ways to code Elixir from you. I'll see if I can follow what you've done and I'll get back as soon as I can!

…

On Mon, Apr 10, 2023 at 2:48 AM Christopher Keele ***@***.***> wrote: Work here: latest...replace-recon <latest...replace-recon> — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AABFOFIUATBRGRJPG7IWDJLXAOUKBANCNFSM5KAJHPLA> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[christhekeele]

You bet! Try reading it commit-by-commit, each one is fairly specific (with some noise from livebooks)