[Gambas-user] Multithreaded Programs

[Doriano Blengino]

Werner ha scritto:
> Doriano Blengino wrote:
>   
>> Benoît Minisini ha scritto:
>>   
>>     
>>>> I pretty much agree.
>>>> Gambas as well as other RAD languages are very good for GUI
>>>> programming, and generally for not CPU intensive purposes.
>>>> If you really need speed, use libraries written with C/C++ or similar.
>>>> BUT it would be very nice if Gambas could handle most things so
>>>> quickly that you don't need to use C/C++.
>>>>
>>>> Maybe Gambas could launch multiple interpreters to enable
>>>>  multi-threading..? But I think you have already considered and discarded
>>>>  that idea...
>>>>
>>>> Maybe interpreter itself should use multi-threading?
>>>> Although I don't know is there yet any good way to do that, meaning
>>>> without installing TBB or similar to enable
>>>> easy using like parallel_for, parallel_loop etc.
>>>>
>>>> Jussi
>>>>
>>>>     
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> I don't like doing that, but hey, here is an authoritative argument. :-)
>>>
>>> "A computer is a state machine. Threads are for people who can't program state 
>>> machines." - Alan Cox.
>>>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> "A computer is made of flip-flops (the very basic unit of memory). High 
>> level languages are for people who don't understand computers - those 
>> who understand them are perfectly happy with punched paper tapes and 
>> machine-level languages" - Doriano Blengino.
>>
>> Without multi-threading and multi-tasking there would not be computers 
>> as we know them. Full stop. This is not to say that gambas should have 
>> multi-threading, nor that Alan Cox is stupid. But that affirmation is. 
>> More on this, if requested.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>>   
>>     
> Surely Alan Cox had meant that to be understood with a nudge and a wink. :-)
> Multi - threading opens a whole can of worms. Gambas 2 is rock solid and
> if there has to be a choice between robustness and performance I take
> the former any time.
>   
Yes, agreed to all. Nudge and wink should be applied to my sentence too, 
which was ironic.
True that multi-threading brings more problems - compilers do, oop does, 
java does; every advancing step in every field brings new problems, but 
also opens new possibilities. The task is to retain the new 
possibilities, and get rid of problems. Once you have new possibilities, 
you can choose whether to use them or not.
And I agree even on gambas: if, by introducing multithreading, stability 
would suffer, then it is better to avoid threading. But this is not the 
question. Benoit said that he does not find a reason to use threads in 
GUI applications; the same about background processing. I don't see what 
have these GUI applications so special or so different from other ones. 
They are applications which, instead of sending results to files, send 
results to the screen. This is all. If I wanted to write a web server 
like Apache, but with a nice GUI and using Gambas, I would feel the lack 
of threading. Threads can simplify a lot certain kinds of problems - and 
can mess up other kinds of problems.

Regards,
Doriano