From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stephen Eilert Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Very interesting analysis of "the state of Emacs" Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:21:19 -0300 Message-ID: <4817D79F.8040508@gmail.com> References: <481693C3.70901@emf.net> <4816CDB6.6000006@pajato.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1209522108 11065 80.91.229.12 (30 Apr 2008 02:21:48 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:21:48 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Apr 30 04:22:24 2008 connect(): Connection refused Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1Jr1xc-0001S0-LI for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:22:20 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:34419 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Jr1wv-0005Ox-La for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:21:37 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Jr1wr-0005On-Jd for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:21:33 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Jr1wp-0005OY-Q0 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:21:33 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=40122 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Jr1wp-0005OV-Mh for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:21:31 -0400 Original-Received: from hs-out-0708.google.com ([64.233.178.247]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Jr1wp-0001qB-EA for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:21:31 -0400 Original-Received: by hs-out-0708.google.com with SMTP id 55so234640hsc.10 for ; Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:21:30 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=VpCaVbSfphuJMIRaNiCVMZagtXXQDLXTUCHkVFCeT5Y=; b=m8YQYhZO6kKP2AI6u8dblBVW2u6Hiuf6N+undNIMIZ1U1LNsj2P6JVahmf3f1t243+IIEargnVe5Fl7Y8dLOeU5ilL/f5Q74IOJOppQ9SkHqGNmApS6CQe9qws2Y8OsMqcKixGIXmCaPElRpJ9YPOqskNW8RQKHDoO9GKfs8e2Y= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=n57iyml7jZTPNqztLoLFrPnZUZpSGWrL067aRI+2K+3rAAnVQjKRvJk2etvCoVwc4UZXiWzBruqpnl90ibTH9y1CBTDwiqRntHWKjyLfauc4RS50XrZkeqebQQupaAGMxbkflwUlJIQsXPFsgr1zU7YDLrnXBT5wZDkaHV2okMs= Original-Received: by 10.90.28.16 with SMTP id b16mr319368agb.0.1209522090535; Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:21:30 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from ?192.168.0.31? ( [201.9.168.233]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 31sm1363380wri.14.2008.04.29.19.21.28 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:21:29 -0700 (PDT) User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (X11/20080227) In-Reply-To: X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:96180 Archived-At: Richard M Stallman wrote: > The other hard problem is multi-tasking in the Emacs Lisp engine. > RMS once left me with the impression that this was virtually > intractable, especially if one wanted to have existing Elisp code base > compatibility, a reasonable thing to want. > > I think "intractable" might be too pessimistic. It is certainly > a lot of work, but someone could give it a try. > > > Before diving in the merits of whether or not it is possible to add multi-tasking to Emacs (by that I assume full-blown threads), what are the problems this is trying to solve? Is it to add background processing (as in, file indexing, background compilation, downloads and the like)? If then, a notion of task priorities could be discussed. For instance, Eclipse knows that, in order to deploy an application, it must be compiled first. It understands that those tasks cannot happen in parallel and should be queued. On the other hand, you can start downloads (usually, plugins and updates for said plugins) right away. It could be a way to use the increasing amount of available processing cores in personal computers. Then again, Emacs doesn't seem like a particularly CPU-bound application. So I am at a loss why this is so important. Could someone clarify? Stephen