Re: [Chicken-users] libcurl?

[felix winkelmann]

On 9/29/05, Ed Watkeys <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> This is my biggest problem with many Scheme implementations. As
> offensive as it is to many Schemers, SMP and multicore CPUs will be
> the main sources of processor performance improvement for the
> foreseeable future.
>

(Oh boy, Herb Sutter really starting something with his article...)

I think all this hype (yes, hype!) about going SMP and multi-whatever
is something that should be taken with a bucket or two of salt.
The question is not whether machines capable of executing multiple
threads will be mainstream - they just will. The question is how we
are going to change our programming habits. And one thing I know:

The programming skills of conemporary software developer of are not
even suffficient to write robust single threaded code. Period.

Let's face it: software is crap. Feature-laden and bloated, written under
tremendous time-pressure, often by incapable coders, using dangerous
languages and inadequate tools, trying to connect to heaps of broken
or obsolete protocols, implemented equally insufficiently, running
on unpredictable hardware, we are all more than used to brokenness.
Adding multithreading to this will not improve the standard of software
engineering, it will just make it worse.

User-level threads have at least better determinism, can
be debugged properly and alllow for _less_ synchronization overhead.

Two more points:

- Moore's law still holds
- Do we need more performance, seriously?

Just my 2 cents. Please ignore me.


cheers,
felix