From: Luke Kanies Date: 2005-05-21T06:37:22+09:00 Subject: Re: Web services and Ruby On Sat, 21 May 2005, Robert Klemme wrote: > "Luke Kanies" schrieb im Newsbeitrag >> >> Well, there are at least two problems with threads: I've never done them >> before and I hope not to have to learn them just to do this relatively >> simple piece, and second they do add another dimension of complexity, one >> which I must always be at least somewhat aware. Given that, as I >> mentioned, I'm a newbie to threads, this does not fill me with confidence. > > Yeah, but > > - there's quite some resources out there to learn from > > - you will have to at some point in time > > - but most important so: your application won't work without concurrency on > your nodes; it's an application requirement. It doesn't matter whether you > do that with threads or processes, you need the concurrency. And concurrency > always needs some form of synchronization. I'd say Ruby threads and > synchronization are easier to learn that what different OS provide in terms > of semaphores, locks, mutexes etc. And once you get the basic concepts it's > probably not that difficult to transfer that to some other implementation / > technology. Yeah, after sending the previous email, I kind of resigned myself to threads. The real problem is that I'm hoping eventually to hire someone who actually knows what they're doing, and I expect my forays into this area will be replaced when I succeed in doing so. In case anyone's interested, I'm writing a (hopefully sophisticated) project entirely in Ruby: http://madstop.com/svn/blink There's a small tutorial: http://madstop.com/svn/blink/language/trunk/doc/intro.rst It's kind of a next-generation cfengine, I guess, although it has a far wider scope. >> Yah, I know that they aren't real threads, but I believe they still come >> with some of the problems that I would have with real threads. > > Like you having to learn them? Well, yeah, that would be the first problem. :) -- "They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me." -- Nathaniel Lee on being consigned to a mental institution, circa 17th c. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Luke Kanies | http://reductivelabs.com | http://config.sage.org