Hans Fugal
9/24/2003 1:14:00 PM
On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 18:45:40 -0600, Hans Fugal wrote:
> It''s difficult to do any serious multi-threaded network programming when
> the whole process blocks on system calls like read, write, and select. Is
> this on a TODO list somewhere, or should I just accept it as a fact of
> life? (and that may mean using a different language.)
Ok, I jumped the gun just a little. On linux /most/ things don''t block.
But /some/ things do. e.g.
thread = Thread.new do
fifo = File.open("fifo","r")
l = fifo.readline
puts "#{Time.new} #{l}"
end
puts "#{Time.new} bar"
thread.join
Will block the entire process until the fifo is open. The following
variation does not block the entire process, though:
fifo = File.open("fifo","r")
thread = Thread.new do
l = fifo.readline
puts "#{Time.new} #{l}"
end
puts "#{Time.new} bar"
thread.join
I say "most" because that''s what the wise ones on #ruby-lang said, and
indeed were surprised to see I had a counter example.
Is there a list of these sorts of things? I need to know what to expect if
I''m going to be able to use ruby for this (soft) real-time application.