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Re: A book for learning threads?

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On Monday, October 29, 2012 11:35:14 AM UTC-5, Lucas Levrel wrote:
> Le 29 octobre 2012, Robert Miles a écrit :
> 
> 
> 
> > On Monday, October 29, 2012 3:45:15 AM UTC-5, Lucas Levrel wrote:
> 
> >> Le 28 octobre 2012, Robert Miles a écrit :
> 
> >>
> 
> >>> What book would you recommend for learning enough about threads and
> 
> >>> pthreads that I can do a reasonable job with this update?  I'd also
> 
> >>> consider an online class, but not an on-campus class.
> 
> >>
> 
> >> You should specify what kind of app you're programming. There are plenty
> 
> >> of books, many are specialized.
> 
> >
> 
> > I'm updating an existing program rather than writing a new program.
> 
> >
> 
> > It's related to RNA research and runs under BOINC.
> 
> 
> 
> Then, be aware that many books are more IT-oriented than science-oriented 
> 
> (in my opinion). If you need a primer on parallel programming, there are:
> 
> - The Art of Concurrency: introduces a classification of parallel 
> 
> algorithms, which may help you identifying what threads are used for;
> 
> - An Introduction to Parallel Programming: also deals with other forms of 
> 
> parallelism (MPI), but is science-oriented.
> 
> 
> 
> > It needs to be able to run on multiple types of platforms, including 
> 
> > some with Windows and some with Linux.
> 
> 
> 
> If it already uses Pthreads and compiles on these platforms, where's the 
> 
> worry? Just stick with the Pthread implementation of the threads concept.

There's no desire to have it run only on platforms that can run for a month or more without any interruptions.  Adding checkpoints so that it can resume with less computer time lost due to any interruptions REQUIRES understanding threads so that I can suspend all threads except the main thread when writing checkpoints or restoring from them.  I don't yet know if it also requires telling all the other threads to place information specific to those threads where the main thread can find it and include it in the checkpoint.

BOINC projects generally have budgets low enough that they need to ask volunteers for computer time on some of the computers less reliable at running for a month or more without any interruption, such as computers running Windows and without any UPS to help them through power flickers.  Therefore, it is a very useful feature to have checkpoints that can frequently save the work in progress to a checkpoint, and resume from that checkpoint later if there is some interruption such as a power outage for a few seconds longer than the computer can run without power.

I don't expect any changes to be needed for the main purpose of the program, only the very many places I need to change for adding a checkpoint feature.

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Thread

A book for learning threads? Robert Miles <milesrf@Usenet-News.net> - 2012-10-28 19:26 -0500
  Re: A book for learning threads? Lucas Levrel <lucas.levrel@u-pec.fr> - 2012-10-29 09:45 +0100
    Re: A book for learning threads? Mark <i@dontgetlotsofspamanymore.invalid> - 2012-10-29 09:45 +0000
    Re: A book for learning threads? Robert Miles <robertmilesxyz@gmail.com> - 2012-10-29 07:42 -0700
      Re: A book for learning threads? Lucas Levrel <lucas.levrel@u-pec.fr> - 2012-10-29 17:35 +0100
        Re: A book for learning threads? Robert Miles <robertmilesxyz@gmail.com> - 2012-10-29 23:49 -0700
          Re: A book for learning threads? Lucas Levrel <lucas.levrel@u-pec.fr> - 2012-10-30 10:43 +0100
            Re: A book for learning threads? Robert Miles <robertmilesxyz@gmail.com> - 2012-10-30 07:27 -0700
          Re: Use of checkpoints for parallel data processing? Markus Elfring <Markus.Elfring@web.de> - 2012-11-01 13:31 +0100
            Re: Use of checkpoints for parallel data processing? Robert Miles <robertmilesxyz@gmail.com> - 2012-11-01 18:39 -0700
              Re: Use of checkpoints for parallel data processing? Markus Elfring <Markus.Elfring@web.de> - 2012-11-05 19:58 +0100
              Re: Use of checkpoints for parallel data processing? Markus Elfring <Markus.Elfring@web.de> - 2012-11-05 20:00 +0100
          Re: A book for learning threads? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-11-01 17:55 +0000
          Re: A book for learning threads? Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-11-03 14:52 +1300
            Re: A book for learning threads? Robert Miles <robertmilesxyz@gmail.com> - 2012-11-02 23:46 -0700
              Re: A book for learning threads? Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-11-07 10:37 +1300
  Re: A book for learning threads? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-10-29 12:52 +0000
    Re: A book for learning threads? Robert Miles <robertmilesxyz@gmail.com> - 2012-10-29 07:45 -0700

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