Threads. Again. Dammit.

[Dan Sugalski]

Okay, it's obvious that we still have some issues to work out before 
we hit implementation details. (Hey, it could be worse--this is easy 
compared to strings...) I think there are some ways we can minimize 
locking, and I think we have some unpleasant potential issues to deal 
with in the interaction between strings and threads (I thought we 
could dodge that, but, well... I was wrong).

This needs more thought and more work before we go anywhere. Some of 
the obvious stuff, like fixing up the cache slot of the PMC, should 
be done regardless.

I also think we need more real-worldish tests for this, so we can see 
if the problems really are as bad as they seem. That, at least, I 
think I can help with, since I conveniently happen to have a compiler 
that targets parrot near-done enough to test some reasonably abusive 
HLL(ish) code to see what sort of hit we take.
--
                                        Dan

--------------------------------------"it's like this"-------------------
Dan Sugalski                          even samurai
[EMAIL PROTECTED]                         have teddy bears and even
                                      teddy bears get drunk