Re: Are there plans for a multi-threaded Emacs?

["Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA> wrote:

   But maybe if we add one lock per buffer and we make
   `with-current-buffer' acquire&release the lock we might get a
   workable model, albeit with a necessarily very coarse grain ....

Yes.  From a user interface point of view, the interactive unit is the
buffer (or a closely associated group of buffers, as in Gnus).  Users
work with buffers.  Only programmers, developers, and people on the
emacs-devel list think otherwise.... :)

When a buffer is operating asynchronously, then nothing should affect
it except a Control-c in the buffer itself.  The
process/thread/whatever gets updated *afterwards*.  

>From a user's point of view, when you run the process in the buffer,
it is as if the buffer were run by another instance of Emacs, but with
an environment that is identical to the start of the process.  (Maybe
this is how it is done; a new instance is spawned.)  The independent
buffer process goes on its own.  After it stops, it is updated.  And
after that, maybe, it updates the rest.

   Of course, extreme care will still be needed, but that's OK.

Yes.  Very true!

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                         Rattlesnake Enterprises
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.teak.cc                             bob@rattlesnake.com