Java: Threading Techniques & Concepts

Question

When using threads I sometimes visualise them as weaving together 3 or more dimensional interconnections between Objects in a Spatial context. This isn't a general use case scenario, but for what I do it is a useful way to think about it.

Are there any APIs which you use which aid threading?

Have you used threads in a manner which doesn't conceptualise as thread being a process?

Answer 1

Are there any APIs which you use which aid threading?

You mean appart from java.util.concurrent? FunctionalJava got some constructs which aid in concurrent programming, as described in a multipart tutorial that starts here.

Have you used threads in a manner which doesn't conceptualise as thread being a process?

Yes, to the extent that threads doesn't conceptualise at all. Take an asynchronous task-runner for instance. It uses threads under the covers but I don't see them and I don't care about them. They are fully managed by the task-runner.

Under the covers, it is all just threads, but when we stop caring about the individual thread and just think about them as a number of slots where you can somehow put code in and have it run for a period of time, then that is when we start to reach for a higher level of abstraction.

Agents/Actors is a common way to do this. An Actor is like a thread that has a lump of state, and then you can send it some code and say "do this to your state when you have time" or something along those lines.