Re: A Quick Question about Threads

From: Jason Winnebeck (yg-boost-users_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-07-31 17:09:42

Mark Sizer wrote:

> Generically, the difference between critical sections and mutexes is 
> immense. In terms of implementation, one never knows.
> 
> A critical section blocks EVERYTHING else in the process. A mutex only 
> blocks things that are waiting on that particular mutex.

Are you absolutely serious/sure about that?  I've been using critical 
sections becauase I couldn't find a reason to use mutexes.  So far I've 
only run my program on single processor machines (where it probably 
doesn't matter), but I'd hate to think I would have a huge amount of 
contention on multiprocessor machines.

I can see how crit secs can be faster on a single CPU machine with those 
semantics, because when you schedule the process, you just decide to 
only schedule that thread.  And on a single CPU just setting a flag 
should work and be safe to do.

Jason