Re: [boost] Re: Threads docs updated in CVS

From: John Max Skaller (skaller_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-08-11 00:18:20

Ross Smith wrote:

> As far as naming goes, my main problem is with the terms "join" and
> "detach". I've never been able to figure out why pthreads uses those
> peculiar names. I can't see _any_ laboratory-detectable trace of a
> connection between what pthread_join() does and the normal English
> meaning of the word "join".

        Thats simple to explain: the model is of a thread of control
bifurcating, then the separate strands rejoining:

                |
                |        fork
                /\
               /  \
              |    |
              |    |
              \    /
               \  /
                \/        join
                 |
                 |

This is even called a fork/join diagram. The names are as
old as processes doing the equivalent, and probably even
older (from lattice theory in mathematics, the fork and
join operators 'wedge' and 'vee')

I.e. the name may not be semantically correct, but the 
historical root isn't pthreads, or even Unix processes,
but further back than that.

-- 
John (Max) Skaller, mailto:skaller_at_[hidden] 
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