This pull request provides a framework for exchanging a very large
stream between handlers, typically between a decoder and an inbound
handler (or between a handler that writes a message and an encoder that
encodes that message).
For example, an HTTP decoder, previously, generates multiple
micro-messages to decode an HTTP message (i.e. HttpRequest +
HttpChunks). With the streaming API, The HTTP decoder can simply
generate a single HTTP message whose content is a Stream. And then the
inbound handler can consume the Stream via the buffer you created when
you begin to read the stream. If you create a buffer whose capacity is
bounded, you can handle a very large stream without allocating a lot of
memory. If you just want to wait until the whole content is ready, you
can also do that with an unbounded buffer.
The streaming API also supports a limited form of communication between
a producer (i.e. decoder) and a consumer. A producer can abort the
stream if the stream is not valid anymore. A consumer can choose to
reject or discard the stream, where rejection is for unrecoverable
failure and discard is for recoverable failure.
P.S. Special thanks to @jpinner for the initial input.
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