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

[Benjamin Riefenstahl <Benjamin.Riefenstahl@epost.de>]

Hi Kai,


Kai Grossjohann <kai@emptydomain.de> writes:
> Well, I don't know a lot about threading, but Java, at least, has
> the same problem: you need to synchronize access to a variable to
> prevent such things from happening.  By default, synchronized access
> is turned off.
>
> [...]
>
> What do people think?  Maybe I missed something obvious...

Just a thought: The Asm/C/Java model of threads is not the only
possibility.

Another model is to create isolated contexts/interpreters for each
thread and require explicit coding to communicate between the threads
and for setting up variables that are synchronized between them.  This
is easier to use in a migration from a single-thread model, and I
think it is also easier and safer to program in general.

OTOH, with a system that does so much in LISP as Emacs does, even
going to the trouble of dump and undump, this model can lead to a lot
of duplicated state, which of course costs memory and also may create
inconsistencies at the user level, when customizations only apply to
one thread but not to the other.

As I said, just a thought...


benny