threads for C/C++ under Unix?

Dave Jones djones at megatest.UUCP
Sat Oct 21 09:28:58 AEST 1989


>From article <802 at bbm.UUCP>, by darcy at bbm.UUCP (D'Arcy Cain):
...
> When I started reading this subject I thought I knew what a thread was. :-)
> Aren't threads just modified forks?  My understanding is that threads
> require kernel support because they involve sharing of system resources
> specifically the I and D space of the process creating the thread as
> opposed to forks which only share I space.

  [ Description of his concept of "threads" omited. ... ]

> ... can someone please tell me what a thread is.
> 

What we've been talking about is pretty much what you described, except
that we are not requiring that each thread get its own kernel-directed
scheduling. We are discussing the possibilty of one kernel-scheduled
task implementing several threads, scheduling them "by hand" as is appropriate.
That has advantages and disadvantages. It can make it easier for the threads
to share data-space, and under Unix at least, it will probably be lots
faster than doing one thread per task, (using shared data-segments, and
pipes, one would assume).



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