basic python threading question

[Donn Cave]

Quoth David Bolen <db3l at fitlinxx.com>:
| Donn Cave <donn at u.washington.edu> writes:
|> Threading is best avoided, period.  I mean, if you can do
|> approximately the same thing without threads, then you would have to
|> be insane to use threads. (...) The use of threads adds a dimension
|> to the complexity of the program, that's all.  (...)
|
| I think that's too general a statement, dependent on task.  A
| multi-threaded implementation can often be clearer than alternative
| implementations - particularly when they are independent activities
| with little data overlap with other threads - because the operation
| itself stands alone and isn't cluttered with any baggage to manage
| multiple activities.  Like anything else it can be mis-applied, but
| it's a valuable design method for some applications.

Right, I don't exactly agree with my remark as edited above either.

| And in most cases handling the same task that a threaded
| implementation achieves via another mechanism is going to have it's
| own trade-off in terms of complexity dimension.  It would be the same
| sort of complexity as the threaded design, but it will have it's own
| complexity nonetheless.

Hm.  You must have meant to say "It wouldn't be the same sort"?

	Donn Cave, donn at u.washington.edu