system-wide JVM (threads) Was: Friendly co-existance

On 07/05/2004 at 11:23:39 PM, Joe Pluta wrote:
Blair Wyman and the rest of the folks that built the JVM have done a
fantastic job.  They've made some design decisions I don't agree with;
for example, I'd like to be able to start "system-wide" JVMs that I
could link my job to.  This would not only reduce the startup overhead,
but would also allow jobs yet one more way to inter-communicate - they
could share Java objects!  That would be sooooo cool.
--- end of excerpt ---

Hmmm....
Indeed, would be pretty cool.
But, the usual answer for this type of request would be something like 
"use threads", right? 

Since logically this is what a threaded application does, using job-wide 
JVM that you 
link your thread to (attach JVM) or create a new thread in, reducing the 
startup overhead of 
a processing unit (the thread), and allow the processing units to 
inter-communicate in new ways.

I have my own knowledge and opinions about why threading is easy/difficult 
and what its 
suited/not-suited for, but this group is a bit emotionally charged, so 
I'll keep those 
to myself here.  8-)

SO...
In general, what are you opinions on the threads type of answer? 
Too MUCH sharing and too complex of synchronization/coding/debug of those 
items? 
Lack of RPG or Native language support for a good threading model?
Difficulty linking this model with large amounts of existing job-based 
code?



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