The otherwise combinator is also useful for trying alternatives in sequence. Consider an expression of the form F0 ; F1 ; F2 ; .... If F_i does not publish and halts, then F_i+1 is executed. We can think of the F_i's as a series of alternatives that are explored until a publication occurs.

Suppose that we would like to poll a list of channels for available data. The list of channels is ordered by priority. The first channel in the list has the highest priority, so it is polled first. If it has no data, then the next channel is polled, and so on.

Here is a function which polls a prioritized list of channels in this way. It publishes the first item that it finds, removing it from the originating channel. If all channels are empty, the function halts. We use the getnb ("get non-blocking") method of the channel, which retrieves the first available item if there is one, and halts otherwise.

def priorityPoll([]) = stop
def priorityPoll(b:bs) = b.getD() ; priorityPoll(bs)