Re: (threads/libmutt/rewrite/long subject)

[Lyndon Drake <lyndon kcbbs gen nz>]

On Mon, Nov 22, 1999 at 06:28:08PM -0500, David Pickens wrote:
> 
> 
> On Mon, 22 Nov 1999, Peter Williams wrote:
> ...
> > > This is upsetting in that I'd be the last person to want to produce a mail
> > > client that large numbers of people couldn't use.  On the other hand,
> > > allowing the user to specify the behavior at compile-time might be the
> > > best solution.
> > > 
> > 
> > Hmmm.... I'm not too comfortable with this idea, but I think it is the best
> > option. Accomodating the threadless is okay, and with a few macros we should
> > be able to abstract pretty well... but would we want to implement code twice,
> > as a thread and as a state machine, or give really long blocks on downloading
> > of mail, etc.? State machines seem to be the best approximation of threads
> > but implementing the code twice is Bad.
> 
> Exactly (I agree) -- I was thinking that it might be possible to allow
> people who can't or won't upgrade to glibc/pthreads the chance to run
> without threads, but not rewrite the basic underlying code.  This will
> still be a bit of hassle, and it will mean that people who take advantage
> of this 'option' will have to live with the blocking, but at least they'd
> be able to run balsa.  On the other hand, this will become a major
> undertaking if we hope to put mail sending calls etc. in threads.
> 
> How many users (proportionally) can't use pthreads?  How many won't by the
> time we have something ready for mainstream use?  And what stands in the
> way of upgrading?  (In other words, can we just expect that users will
> upgrade to glibc/pthreads by the time this is available for popular use,
> assuming of course that reasonable PCs can do this? 486+?)

If we are just considering Linux, then RedHat 6.0 and above have the
appropriate glibc.  A lot of people still use RH 5.2, and might not want
to upgrade.  Also worth looking at are other platforms.  Solaris is OK,
but older versions of FreeBSD have no multithreading support at all (as
opposed to the buggy support in older glibc's :-).

-- 
Lyndon Drake                      | Desktop:      http://www.gnome.org
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