In my current project (first elixir project) I have different messages each represented by its own struct which defines the unique view of that message.
I then created a module to act as a handler for those messages, so I can call MyModule.handle(message, state). The actual implementation for the handle function uses pattern matching in the function definition so each function only handles the message type it knows (e.g. def handle(message = %MessageType1{}, state), do: ...).
It then occurred to me that this is the same functionality offered by protocols, and got me wondering if I should be using protocols for this scenario rather than function pattern matching.
The only advantages I could see with protocols is that external systems using a library that defines a protocol can extend it out to their own custom structs. On the other hand, function pattern matching allows you to code fall-through cases.
Are there any other practical reasons why I should choose one or the other?
