... it could be a program using 500MB of RAM, and starting the two new threads would triplicate that!!!

What? Care to explain that? Better still, care to demo it?

I would guess that you are alluding to CLONING here? Only explicitly shared data gets cloned on thread creation, and then only if thread creation occurs after the creation of the shared data. It is avoidable, with care, though I agree that is far from ideal.

I have been asking for a 'bare thread' NO_CLONE option for months years, but FUD like the above doesn't help.

I needed to do non-blocking IO on a pipe, but windows only supports select on sockets.

FYI: It is perfectly possible, and reasonably simple to do non-blocking IO on a pipe under win32 without using threads. You can't use select to do it directly, but with sufficient XS/internals skills, the nitty-gritty could be hidden under the covers of Perl's select.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

In reply to Re^11: Slow evolution of Perl = Perl is a closed Word (thread decade) by BrowserUk
in thread Slow evolution of Perl = Perl is a closed Word by Anonymous Monk

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