On 23/03/2009, at 9:36 AM, Schwab,Wilhelm K wrote:
Semaphores and Mutexes are the lower level tools. **Critical sections** implemented in terms of blocks are the fantastic part.
I don't regard critical sections as particularly fantastic.
The little that I know about functional languages and their immutable data structures suggests that a LOT of copying occurs. That has to be expensive in terms of scheduling and memory footprint.
A lot less than you might think, but this reminds me of the arguments people make against Smalltalk and Lisp. Old radicals become the new conservatives. Antony Blakey -------------------------- CTO, Linkuistics Pty Ltd Ph: 0438 840 787 The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution -- Bertrand Russell