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Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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In comp.unix.programmer Noob <root@127.0.0.1> wrote:
> James Kuyper wrote:
> > Lawrence Jones wrote:
> >
> >> Keith Thompson wrote:
> >>
> >>> I'm not very familiar with this area, but why would just
> >>> incorporating POSIX threads (or perhaps a subset of POSIX threads)
> >>> into the C standard not have been a good solution?
> >>
> >> My understanding, from people who know a whole lot more about it than I
> >> do, is that POSIX threads cannot be implemented on top of Windows
> >> because it presupposes a bunch of POSIX features that Windows doesn't
> >> provide, at least in the form that POSIX threads requires.
> > 
> > Could you ask those people to provide a more detailed explanation of the
> > problem? I doubt that a naked assertion will convince Rui Maciel, and
> > I'm curious about the reasons myself.

POSIX threads can be implemented quite comprehensively on Windows:

	http://sourceware.org/pthreads-win32/conformance.html

But anyone who has used POSIX threads and Windows' native API quickly learns
that they're quite different approaches. The biggest difference that I'm
aware of is that Windows' mutexes cannot be statically initialized.
pthreads-win32 handles this with a global Windows' CriticalSection in
pthread_mutex_lock(). AFAIK, the C1x proposal doesn't allow statically
initialized objects, presumably so the interface can be implemented atop
Windows' API without such ugliness.

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Thread

POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows (was: C is fixed or not ?) Noob <root@127.0.0.1> - 2011-07-07 15:17 +0200
  Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows William Ahern <william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> - 2011-07-07 11:21 -0700
    Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2011-07-08 08:07 +1200
      Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2011-07-07 16:01 -0500
        Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows "MikeP" <mp011011@some.org> - 2011-07-07 21:12 -0500
          Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2011-07-07 23:33 -0500
            Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows "MikeP" <mp011011@some.org> - 2011-07-07 23:49 -0500
          Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2011-08-03 07:32 -0700
      Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows William Ahern <william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> - 2011-07-07 15:06 -0700
    Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows lawrence.jones@siemens.com - 2011-07-10 16:08 -0400
      Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows William Ahern <william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> - 2011-07-10 16:09 -0700
        Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2011-07-11 06:20 -0400
          Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2011-07-11 22:36 +1200
      Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2011-07-11 16:18 +0000
        Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows Geoff Clare <geoff@clare.See-My-Signature.invalid> - 2011-07-12 13:30 +0100
  Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows (was: C is fixed or not ?) Joshua Maurice <joshuamaurice@gmail.com> - 2011-07-07 19:01 -0700
  Re: POSIX threads hard to implement in Windows (was: C is fixed or not ?) "Ersek, Laszlo" <lacos@caesar.elte.hu> - 2011-07-14 23:05 +0200

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