(If more than y threads are already doing work when 0 T.y is issued, then the
extraneous threads should exit as soon as they are finished; this should be
completely transparent. Thread count is a hint; it should not affect
semantics except in a buggy program.)
On Thu, 28 Apr 2022, Elijah Stone wrote:
Current interface for creating threads is 0 T.''. I find this interface
problematic for a couple of reasons:
1. Pretty much every j script I have seen anyone write is headed by something
like 0&T.@''^:n'', where n is the desired number of threads to create. I
haven't ever seen anyone call 0 T.'' directly by hand, and I don't think
there
is ever a good reason to do that. 0&T.@''^:n'' is cumbersome and not
particularly clear.
2. There is no mechanism to reduce the number of threads.
3. (This was pointed out by somebody else:) if a script is headed by
0&T.@''^:n'', then every time that script is reloaded, n _new_ threads will
be
created, which is probably not desirable behaviour.
I therefore suggest that the threading interface be changed so that 0 T.y
ensures that there are y threads, creating or destroying threads as needed.
Question: should y be the overall number of threads, or the number of threads
on top of the master thread? If the former, should 0 T.0 be punned to exit
the session (i.e. kill all threads, including the master thread)?
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