Fibers and inp()/outp() in Tango

[Sean Kelly]

Sean Kelly wrote:
> Ingo Oeser wrote:
> 
>> Ok, here is a link to someone who did more analysis with that kind of 
>> stuff and documented some pitfalls with it.
>>
>> http://tservice.net.ru/~s0mbre/old/?section=projects&item=threading
>>
>> He did it under Linux.
> 
> Thanks, I'll check it out.

Interesting article.  It sounds like he implemented green threads using 
signals.  I do sort of wonder what in the design necessitated signals, 
but I trust that there's a reason.  Fibers in Tango are perhaps a bit 
less fancy but are more efficient in exchange, as they are scheduled 
cooperatively (ie. you must call Fiber.yield() to switch Fiber 
contexts).  This makes them useful for certain specialized programming 
tasks, but reduces their utility as a general programming tool because 
of the necessity for the yield call.  The important bit is really that 
they are integrated with the GC scanning mechanism, which would have 
been difficult to do if they were offered as a third-party extension to 
Tango.


Sean