Re: multi-threaded Emacs

[Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com>]

>>>>> "Helmut" == Helmut Eller <eller.helmut@gmail.com> writes:

Helmut> I'm wondering what the exact problem with Gnus is.

Getting new news blocks all of Emacs, sometimes for a long time.
Also, entering a newsgroup can sometimes take quite a while.

It seems to me that this could be fixed in Gnus, by installing a
special keymap (to prevent the user from trying "bad" things) and then
doing a lot more work in the process filter.  This is a pain, of
course.

Entering a newsgroup is trickier since I am sure that it is not always
blocked on I/O.  Even this could be done -- say by doing small
increments of work each time a timer fires.

But, the problem is not limited to Gnus.  If you do a big update in
PCL-CVS (or psvn), Emacs will pause while preparing the buffer.  Some
VC things did this, too, in 22 (but now are async, I think).

I've also noticed that ERC can cause Emacs to be unusable for long
periods, I think when it has trouble contacting the nameserver.  Also,
ERC tends to disconnect from the server if Emacs pauses for too long
-- I got much more sensitive to problems in this area once I started
using ERC...

The promise of threads isn't just that it can fix these, but that it
opens Emacs to new applications without hurting usability.  Maybe
there are other ways to accomplish the same thing, though.

Tom