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A question about the new 'retry' option. The doc says:

     By default, cast() and call() will block until the
     message is successfully sent.

What does 'successfully sent' mean here? Does it mean 'written to the 
wire' or 'accepted by the broker'?

For the impl_qpid.py driver, each send is synchronous, so it means 
accepted by the broker[1].

What does the impl_rabbit.py driver do? Does it just mean 'written to 
the wire', or is it using RabbitMQ confirmations to get notified when 
the broker accepts it (standard 0-9-1 has no way of doing this).

If the intention is to block until accepted by the broker that has 
obvious performance implications. On the other hand if it means block 
until written to the wire, what is the advantage of that? Was that a 
deliberate feature or perhaps just an accident of implementation?

The use case for the new parameter, as described in the git commit, 
seems to be motivated by wanting to avoid the blocking when sending 
notifications. I can certainly understand that desire.

However, notifications and casts feel like inherently asynchronous 
things to me, and perhaps having/needing the synchronous behaviour is 
the real issue? Calls by contrast, are inherently synchronous, but at 
present the retry controls only the sending of the request. If the 
server fails, the call may timeout regardless of the value of 'retry'.

Just in passing, I'd suggest that renaming the new parameter 
max_reconnects, would make it's current behaviour and values clearer. 
The name 'retry' sounds like a yes/no type value, and retry=0 v. retry=1 
is the reverse of what I would intuitively expect.

--Gordon.

[1] I've personally considered that somewhat unnecessary.