Subj : Re: "why" use pthreads ?
To   : comp.programming.threads
From : Phil Frisbie, Jr.
Date : Wed Oct 12 2005 08:08 pm

inanc.gumus@gmail.com wrote:

> in unix based systems it's OK, but in windows is OK too? and what
> aspects are more effective using pthreads instead of native thread apis?

This is based on my own experiences, YMMV, etc.......

When I first needed threading support in my HawkNL library several years ago I 
decided to use pthreads for portability, and use the 'pthreads for WIN32' 
library on Windows. That library works well at providing a POSIX thread API, but 
because  the native Windows thread APIs are so different there is a lot of 
overhead, and native Windows threads are already 'heavier' than pthreads on most 
Unix like OSs heavily threaded apps run even slower than with native threads.

Since I was only using a basic set of pthreads to begin with I wrote my own 
wrapper API around pthreads and native Windows threads. You can check it out at 
my site below if you wish.

-- 
Phil Frisbie, Jr.
Hawk Software
http://www.hawksoft.com

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