From:	raf AT comdyn DOT com DOT au (raf)
Subject:	Re: newbie question
3 Feb 1998 05:06:14 -0800 :
Message-ID:	<199802031054.VAA23359.cygnus.gnu-win32@mali.comdyn.com.au>
To:	gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com

>forgive my stupidity, but what does it mean for cygwin.dll to not be
>"thread-safe"??

>I'm sure that if it really mattered for me i would understand completely,
>so this is mostly a question of curiosity.  thanks a lot.

correct. if you don't know what threads are, you're safe :)

most programs are written with only a single 'thread of execution'.
some are written with multiple threads of execution (this is like
pre-emptive multi-tasking but inside a single process - very cool).
when a program is 'multi-threaded', it is required that functions
be callable from more than one thread at the same time without barfing.
this requires any 'static' data to be 'thread-specific' rather then global
to the entire program. if a library is not 'thread-safe' then this condition
is not met.

this is simplistic. if you really need to know the answer, read some books
on thread programming.


seeya,
raf

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