[cpp-threads] RE: C++ Connections proposal

[Alexander Terekhov]

On 4/25/05, Boehm, Hans <hans.boehm at hp.com> wrote:
[...]
> inlining the pthread primitives.  You are just moving
> things down a level; the "opaque calls" are now the CAS
> instructions or the like.

Pthreads aside for a moment, think of refcounting under basic 
thread safety -- stuff along the lines of std::string COWs and 
tr1::shared_ptr/weak_ptr. You really don't want "opaque" (full-
stop compiler fence) atomics for increments (they can be 
totally naked) or decrements (they need relaxed value 
dependent acquire-release protocol [msync::cchlb -> msync::
cchsb] in the case of immutable managed objects instead of 
"full" [but still value dependent] acquire-release protocol in the 
case of mutable ones).

> 
> I'm not sure how many systems actually have the option of
> inlining pthread primitives. 

Pthreads-win32 can do it, IIRC. ;-)

regards,
alexander.