Return-Path: Received: by vger.rutgers.edu via listexpand id ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 10:21:17 -0500 Received: by vger.rutgers.edu id ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 10:14:45 -0500 Received: from lsmls02.we.mediaone.net ([24.130.1.15]:49816 "EHLO lsmls02.we.mediaone.net") by vger.rutgers.edu with ESMTP id ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 10:02:52 -0500 Message-ID: <385A5068.B4490833@alumni.caltech.edu> Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 07:02:00 -0800 From: Dan Kegel Organization: Precious Little X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.2.5-15 i586) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu" Cc: raster@rasterman.com Subject: re: RasterMan on linux and threads Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu Content-Length: 1642 Lines: 35 re http://kernelnotes.org/lnxlists/linux-kernel/lk_9912_03/msg00480.html Rasterman is wrong in saying that all threads run on the same processor, but everything else he says about threads is spot on: unless you have a real good reason to create a thread, don't. Ousterhout certainly agrees. See his slides on "Why threads are bad (usually)" at http://www.scriptics.com/people/john.ousterhout/ Earlier in his news page, Raster says: > The [imlib2] API changed a lot recently - it's now context based (you set > the current context) and it uses that current context for almost all > calls. It means many fewer parameters to many calls - but it also means > Imlib2 is NOT thread-safe as the context is global. If anyone wants to > work on making it thread safe - there's source code and send patches - > but I don't see much value in it. Do all your graphics work in 1 thread. Wow, deja vu. Right on the heels of Jim Gettys' post on the same subject, http://kernelnotes.org/lnxlists/linux-kernel/lk_9912_03/msg00096.html Raster, you might want to read Jim's post. X calls use lots of context parameters (like old imlib), OpenGL calls use none (like new imlib2), and now they both wish they'd used a single one (i.e. an object oriented approach). And you might want to modify your statement that threads always run on the same CPU... - Dan -- (The above is just my personal opinion; I don't speak for my employer, except on the occasional talk show.) - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/