[REBOL] Re: Multithreading with Rebol
From: maarten:vrijheid at: 17-Oct-2003 15:28
Hi Andreas,
> The problem I see w/ coop multi-tasking (and I've implemented two coop
> mt server frameworks in REBOL) is that it's a viral, an all-or-nothing
> approach. If I have e.g. disk IO, I've to impl a simple file IO in a
> coop way, i.e. decompositing it into a state machine w/ small tasks
> that preferrably don't block. If I've some computing intensive
> algorithm, once more, I've to state it in a coop way. And I (my very
> personal opinion based on my experiences with that kind of stuff in
> REBOL) find that decomposition rather boring and the result quite hard
> to maintain. Imho, first class continuations would help in this
> situation, but that's another topic.
>
So let's do first-class continuations on the mezzanine level,
re-implementing reduce as block interpreter that recursively evaluates
the values supplied. And then redo 'do ;-) , retrofit load etc. Anybody
interested? And when we have done that, why not make'em first class
distributed in our full reflexive meta-language? Now that's GRID
computing on steroids!
> I'm in no way an expert in the theoretical issues surrounding this
> topic, nor am I a REBOL guru. So it may well be that I've missed some
> nifty ways to write something that won't require complete changes in
> all my coding habits. So - questions, corrections and suggestions are
> welcome :)
>
Same here, but if you really want to, you'll learn what you need to know
;-)
--Maarten
