Re: [Caml-list] Re: Kinds of threads

[Xavier Leroy <xavier.leroy@inria.fr>]

> The docs say that there are two kinds of threads in O'Caml: 
> Ocaml bytecode threads and POSIX threads, and that it is 
> possible to select which implementation to use at compiler 
> build time. Two questions: first, what is the implementation 
> chosen in the ocaml RPM distribution

The RPMs distributed by INRIA use bytecode threads.  That might not be
true of RPMs and Debian packages built by third parties.

> second, why must one choose one implementation at compiler build
> time? Why not use a compiler switch such as --posix-threads as opposed
> to --caml-threads?

Mostly because the idea didn't cross my mind.  Offhand, I believe that
just playing with the search path would suffice to select between the
two implementations.  (This needs to be checked, though.)

> Caml threads are probably the only way to go on Windows, 
> since the Win32 API is not POSIX compliant.

Amusingly, it's the other way around: bytecode threads use a lot of
Unix-specific hacks to get non-blocking I/O, while system threads can
easily be built on top of Win32 threads (even though the latter aren't
POSIX-compliant).

- Xavier Leroy
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