From: Joel VanderWerf <joelvanderwerf@...>
Date: 2010-01-22T08:13:52+09:00
Subject: Re: Threads or Fibers - which should I use?

Alpha Blue wrote:
> My application will perform a number of tasks.  As it is a GUI
> application, I want the application to remain responsive to other input
> while it's performing other tasks.  A good example of this might be:
> 
> A search operation
> A compile operation
> 
> While the search operation is in effect, no other searches can be
> performed until the operation is completed.  While a compile operation
> is in effect, no other compile option can be completed.
> 
> However, a search operation, a compile operation, and other GUI
> functionality should still be accessible and responsive.
> 
> Give this scenario, which would be better to use - threads or fibers?

Have you considered three _processes_, GUI, search, and compile, with 
communication over drb? That way, the GUI event loop is never encumbered 
with other tasks and is robust to failures of those tasks. Plus, you 
make use of >1 core.

This might not work well if a huge volume of objects must be shared 
between the tasks, but that doesn't seem likely from your description.