Fri, 16.May 2008

• Walnut/Distributed Computing - Erights #

  “Multiple threads form the basis of conventional models of concurrent programming. Remarkably, human beings engage in concurrent distributed computing every day even though people are generally single threaded. How do we simple creatures pull off the feat of distributed computing without multiple threads? Why do we not see groups of people, deadlocked in frozen tableau around the coffepot, one person holding the sugar waiting for milk, the other holding milk waiting for sugar? The answer is, we use a sophisticated computational mechanism known as a nonblocking promise.”