The threading module uses threads, the multiprocessing module uses processes. The difference is that threads run in the same memory space, while processes have separate memory. This makes it a bit harder to share objects between processes with multiprocessing. Since threads use the same memory, precautions have to be taken or two threads will write to the same memory … Read more
My main problem is that I really don’t know how to implement multiprocessing.queue correctly, you cannot really instantiate the object for each process since they will be separate queues, how do you make sure that all processes relate to a shared queue (or in this case, queues) This is a simple example of a reader … Read more
Pretty much, yes. “Atom” comes from greek “atomos” = “uncuttable”, and has been used in the sense “indivisible smallest unit” for a very long time (till physicists found that, in fact, there are smaller things than atoms). In concurrent programming, it means that there will be no context switch during it – nothing can affect the execution … Read more
Thread-safe code is code that will work even if many Threads are executing it simultaneously. http://mindprod.com/jgloss/threadsafe.html
Both processes and threads are independent sequences of execution. The typical difference is that threads (of the same process) run in a shared memory space, while processes run in separate memory spaces. I’m not sure what “hardware” vs “software” threads you might be referring to. Threads are an operating environment feature, rather than a CPU … Read more
Threads are a generic concept. Wikipedia defines it as: In computer science, a thread of execution is the smallest sequence of programmed instructions that can be managed independently by an operating system scheduler. A thread is a light-weight process. Pthreads or POSIX threads are one implementation of that concept used with C program on Unix. … Read more
A thread is an independent set of values for the processor registers (for a single core). Since this includes the Instruction Pointer (aka Program Counter), it controls what executes in what order. It also includes the Stack Pointer, which had better point to a unique area of memory for each thread or else they will … Read more
Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlock: In concurrent computing, a deadlock is a state in which each member of a group of actions, is waiting for some other member to release a lock A livelock is similar to a deadlock, except that the states of the processes involved in the livelock constantly change with regard to one another, … Read more
A race condition occurs when two or more threads can access shared data and they try to change it at the same time. Because the thread scheduling algorithm can swap between threads at any time, you don’t know the order in which the threads will attempt to access the shared data. Therefore, the result of … Read more
When I am having a big heated discussion at work, I use a rubber chicken which I keep in my desk for just such occasions. The person holding the chicken is the only person who is allowed to talk. If you don’t hold the chicken you cannot speak. You can only indicate that you want … Read more