> Thanks to everyone who replied. Particularly Matt, that is a fantastic
> analogy and exactly what I needed to present to the conference.
I hate to be too politically correct about this but I would be a little
cautious about presenting the analogy 'as is', as some people might find it
sexist and/or offensive.
I have found some confusion with users between Multi-processing,
multi-tasking and mult-threading & async operations.
To my mind:
1) Multi-processing : using more than one 'computer/processor' to perform
one or more tasks at once. An example would be using a Linux Beowulf
cluster or a SGI 16 way CPU supercomputer to render pretty graphics.
2) Multi-tasking : Running more than one application/program at once
_independantly_ on a single machine. For instance you can have POVRay
grinding running away rendering a picture then attempt to format a floppy.
Good test if your OS can really multi-task <g>. The OS should be handling
resource conflicts, critical sections (avoiding dead-locking) and giving
each task a slice at the processor without thrashing or getting too jumpy.
3) Multi-threading : Dividing a single program up into multiple sub-tasks
that are seen by the user to run at the same time. The programmer writing
the program controls creation & destruction of the threads, synchronisation
etc. See the Delphi sort example...
4) Async operations. I am on the ICS mail list and all the newbies see to
get confused by this. For instance to get 10 simultanous downloads on a FTP
client they try writing 10 threads or using 10 copies of the FTP Client
component. Basically with Async operations you send off a request like
'give me this web page' and then go on to do other things 'give me this
other web page' in the mean time. Multi-things are occuring at the same
time (2 web pages are being sent down the line to you) but the programmer is
not concerned about threads...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Zealand Delphi Users group - Delphi List - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: http://www.delphi.org.nz
