[TriLUG] Perl and SMP

[Tanner Lovelace]

On 6/4/07, Andrew Perrin <clists at perrin.socsci.unc.edu> wrote:
> Well, definitely *not* being a computer science type, I could imagine a
> "smart" interpreter that would open as many threads as there were
> processors, then assign particular tasks to each process and return them
> to the main, thereby making the threading transparent to the user/process.
> I assume this has been thought of and either implemented or rejected for a
> good reason, but that's what I was thinking about.
>
> Andy

Andy,

That assumes there is more than one task.  What if there
is only one?  Or what if there are several, but there are dependencies
among them?  How is the computer supposed to know without
someone telling it that?

If it's a standard perl program, though, chances are that there is
only one task and it goes from beginning to end.  It may happen
over and over but once again, how is the computer supposed to
know that without anyone telling it.

Cheers,
Tanner
-- 
Tanner Lovelace
clubjuggler at gmail dot com
http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
(fieldless) In fess two roundels in pale, a billet fesswise and an
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