On Apr 9, 2005, at 5:46 PM, Peter Suk wrote: > On Apr 9, 2005, at 2:29 PM, Lothar Scholz wrote: > >> Hello Peter, >> >> PS> Why is it that you'd want real threads? What can real threads do >> that >> PS> Ruby VM threads can't do? The answer is synchronous calls out to >> OS >> PS> services. (As well as utilizing multiple processors, but that's >> PS> another issue.) >> >> I find multiple real OS threads so important that lack of this feature >> puts a Visual Works port out of my interest. > > Well, we sure will miss you and your impotent insights! Lothar, Oh my, let me apologize. This is an unfortunate typo! People's comments here have been universally valuable, and there has been a 100% sincere effort on the part of everyone to provide constructive criticism and encouragement. This is very refreshing, since I have also experienced other groups where certain people would emotionally react against new ideas with FUD, despite repeatedly having it demonstrated to them that they had their facts wrong and they really knew relatively little about the target of their FUD in the first place. In any case, I just remembered a certain cross-platform JIT VM by a certain obscure software company. One which is reputed to be quite fast, though it only has source-level compatibility -- meaning one cannot just FTP images to a new platform and restart them there. But this is fine, since I have already decided on compatibility at the source level. This VM also happens to have native threads. I will look into putting Ruby on top of this if enough people are interested. Incidentally, I have noticed in other discussions that this group is generally very good natured, and given how it can often be otherwise, this is truly something to be valued. There have also been many very good observations here, which have been genuinely helpful. I hope that all those in this group who post in that spirit will forgive me a few moments of crankiness. (And if I sincerely mean anything in this message, it is definitely everything in this last paragraph.) --Peter -- There's neither heaven nor hell, save what we grant ourselves. There's neither fairness nor justice, save what we grant each other.