D has moved up to number 18!

[Sean Kelly]

Dave wrote:
> Dejan Lekic wrote:
>> Mr. (or Mrs.) jcc7, thank you - i have tried to find that post myself, 
>> but
>> failed! :)
>> Yes, that is a very nice thread, with many good ideas which followed.
>> In short, the basic idea is to move thread support INTO the language.
>> Best regards!
> 
> I'd like to interject that, if more threading support is to be added to 
> the language, it may be worthwhile to look into moving away from 'native 
> threads' (including pthreads) into something more lightweight as the 
> internal basis for D threading. Like the recently posted StackThreads 
> library maybe(?). Many other languages (especially functional languages) 
> are taking this approach - better performance, flexibility and portability.

Yes and no.  With the number of processors on average systems increasing 
rapidly, there's definitely a place for kernel threads in today's world. 
  IMO Solaris handles threading fairly well as it automatically uses 
both user threads and kernel threads for the pthread API based on some 
system knowledge and influenced by some API parameters.  I like this 
better than cooperative user-level multithreading in most cases because 
it's easier to use and more flexible for the platform design, though it 
isn't quite so lightweight as mutexes and such must still be used.

> IMHO, it be best to either a) release v1.0 w/ thread support as-is and 
> redesign it for v2 or b) delay v1 until it has any improvements Walter 
> may deem worthy, because I can only see MT as becoming hugely important 
> in the next couple of years.

Definately.


Sean