Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!gatech!bloom-beacon!think!ames!ptsfa!ihnp4!homxb!mtuxo!mtune!codas!cpsc6a!rtech!wrs!dg
From: dg@wrs.UUCP (David Goodenough)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: light weight processes and threads
Message-ID: <255@wrs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-Jul-87 16:52:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: wrs.255
Posted: Fri Jul 17 16:52:34 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 19-Jul-87 01:18:47 EDT
References: <8272@brl-adm.ARPA> <3872@spool.WISC.EDU> <302@cbstr1.att.com>
Reply-To: dg@wrs.UUCP (David Goodenough)
Organization: Wind River Systems, Emeryville, CA
Lines: 28
Xref: mnetor comp.unix.wizards:3301 comp.lang.forth:87

In article <302@cbstr1.att.com> Karl.Kleinpaste@cbstr1.att.com writes:
>lm@cottage writes:
>> Another thing you can do is to have light weight processes.  The idea is 
>> this:  run more than one process within a single process's address
>> space.  Switching between these processes is little more (a white lie)
>> than saving the old registers and throwing in the new ones.  All the
>> other baggage is unchanged, resulting in a faster context switch.
>
>I would disagree a bit on terminology.  The separation of a single
>process' data space into multiple schedulable entities is closer to
>what one thinks of as a "thread."  ..... Lots more deleted

What a *BEAUTIFUL* idea - multi-threaded FORTH: since FORTH has such
a simple "context": little more than a program counter & a couple of
stack pointers, a context switch could be done with about 10 instructions.
One wonders if this is in any way related to the fact that FORTH lends
itself to real time applications? (Note I am not a FORTH guru, just an
interested bystander who keeps his ears half open). However has anyone
out there heard of a multi-tasking FORTH environment / written one /
worked on one etc. etc. etc. My gut tells me to a FORTH expert it could
be very interesting.
--
		dg@wrs.UUCP - David Goodenough

					+---+
					| +-+-+
					+-+-+ |
					  +---+