I'm considering a one line addition to the threads module to overload the string value of a thread to return its ID: 
  '""' => \&tid

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Since thread IDs are unique, thread objects could be used as hash keys in a more rational way: 
  $timeouts{$thr} = $secs;

[download]
Also, it would also simply such things as: 
  print("Thread $thr running...\n");

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While this is not completely backward compatible, I'm wondering if that really matters. For example, according to CPANTS there are no CPAN modules that have 'threads' as a requirement other than 'thread::shared', 'Thread::Suspend' and 'Thread::Cancel', and I know they won't break.

As to other user code out in the Perl universe, the only code that would break would be cases where the current stringified version of a thread (i.e., 'threads=SCALAR(0x...)') is explicitly tested for. IMHO, I think that such a case would be extremely rare, and as such, would not justify blocking the proposed change.

Comments?

Remember: There's always one more bug.

In reply to [RFC] Stringifying a thread by jdhedden

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