From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2004-02-21T11:00:12+09:00
Subject: Re: threads and blocking

Shashank Date wrote:
> It may have to do with the threads get scheduled to run. For example, this will block like you expected:
>  
> ruby -e "Thread.new{gets}; Thread.new{sleep(0.01);select nil}; Thread.new{puts 42}"

Doesn't block in ruby 1.9.0 (2004-02-15) [i686-linux]. Maybe a windows 
effect? My (limited) understanding of ruby threads is that thread 
waiting on IO will not block the app.

Also, a thread calling system will not block the app, as in

   Thread.new {system "sleep 10"}

However, flock does block the process.