From: Ben <benbelly@...>
Date: 2005-09-27T04:52:56+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby Threads 101

On 9/26/05, Robert Klemme <bob.news@gmx.net> wrote:
> I once cooked something up on the Wiki (including a superfluous queue
> implementation - there is one that comes with Ruby) although I guess it
> won't be much use for you as you seem to be rather senior when it comes to
> threading.
> http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?MultiThreading
>
> One thing to keep in mind is that Ruby threads are not (yet) native threads.
> Despite of that they work quite nicely IMHO.
>

  Thanks for the wiki pointer.  It's always nice to see how something
familiar is done in another language.  Gives me a feeling for what the
differences are.

  Why is it that Ruby threads aren't native?  Lack of time to make
them so, or is it the long term plan to never use native threads?
  Also, the book was a little vague about when all threads block
waiting for one thread.  It said a "call to the operating system"
would cause all threads to block.  What did that mean exactly?  Shell
commands?  Opening files?  Sockets?  A lot of common actions results
in system calls.

  As for my project, I am considering having the group write an app
that downloads fantasy football stats for several different positions
from a web page.  (Each position would be grabbed and parsed by a
different thread).  Those stats would be scored and each positions
players would be sorted by score.  A shared table sorted by overall
score would be updated on a player by player basis.

  DId that make sense?  Thoughts?

-Ben