From: jra AT axon DOT cygnus DOT com (Jeremy Allison)
Subject: Re: ITIMER Implementation???
4 Dec 1996 12:33:30 -0800
Sender: daemon AT cygnus DOT com
Approved: cygnus DOT gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com
Distribution: cygnus
Message-ID: <199612041954.LAA06070.cygnus.gnu-win32@cygnus.com>
Original-To: Alessandro Forin <sandrof AT microsoft DOT com>
Original-cc: "'Jeremy Allison'" <jra AT cygnus DOT com>,
        "'Colin Peters'" <colin AT bird DOT fu DOT is DOT saga-u DOT ac DOT jp>,
        "'GNU-Win32'" <gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com>
In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 04 Dec 1996 10:45:56 PST."
             <c=US%a=_%p=msft%l=RED-77-MSG-961204184556Z-68688 AT INET-04-IMC DOT itg DOT microsoft DOT com> 
Original-Sender: owner-gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com

Alessandro,

	You make some very interesting points. The problem
though is that Cygwin32 is meant to compile existing UNIX
code. I know signals are a poor substitute for about 4 different
things, my goal is for people not to have to change their code.

Using threads for ITIMERS would only work if the original
code wanted a timer facility that didn't interrupt I/O in
progress. Without knowing what the original request was
using ITIMERS for I have to code for the general case
which is interrupting I/O with a signal when the timer fires.

If they have to re-write they might as well just move to the
Win32 api. The really interesting task would be to get a
description of the 'real' NT API, not the Win32 overlay,
I mean the one that executables flagged as 'NT Native'
use. I believe that there may be calls in there that
would enable a much better POSIX emulation (as this is
the API that the NT POSIX subsystem is based on).

However I doubt that Microsoft would be willing to
document it for us (although I believe you have done so
for the 'OpenNT' company in San Francisco). I would love
for you to prove me wrong however :-).

Cheers,

	Jeremy.
	jra AT cygnus DOT com
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