From owner-freebsd-arch Wed May 17 13:30:31 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from finch-post-10.mail.demon.net (finch-post-10.mail.demon.net [194.217.242.38]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4669237B8F1; Wed, 17 May 2000 13:30:19 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dfr@nlsystems.com) Received: from nlsys.demon.co.uk ([158.152.125.33] helo=herring.nlsystems.com) by finch-post-10.mail.demon.net with esmtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 12sASP-000KcT-0A; Wed, 17 May 2000 20:30:17 +0000 Received: from salmon.nlsystems.com (salmon.nlsystems.com [10.0.0.3]) by herring.nlsystems.com (8.9.3/8.8.8) with ESMTP id VAA26610; Wed, 17 May 2000 21:35:19 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from dfr@nlsystems.com) Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 21:34:40 +0100 (BST) From: Doug Rabson To: Mike Smith Cc: Terry Lambert , Nick Hibma , arch@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: A new api for asynchronous task execution In-Reply-To: <200005171915.MAA00495@mass.cdrom.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Wed, 17 May 2000, Mike Smith wrote: > > > > > I do hope to be able to replace at least some of these pieces. I like the > > > > > idea of a priority sorted list of tasks, probably using a priority field > > > > > in struct task. > > > > > > > > Bletch. > > > > > > > > This is a job best handled by managing insertion order, rather than > > > > by way of an explicit sort. Insertion order also keeps the structure > > > > both small and generic. > > > > > > You specifically can't "manage insertion order", which is why the queues > > > need to be sorted. Go look at the current problem set before making > > > sweeping assertions like this. > > > > The "current problem set" or the "current implementation"? > > > > I know the current implementation can't handle it. > > > > I can probably give you references from as far back as the 1970's on > > why it's possible in the context of the current problem set. > > > > The DDJ article on skiplists in ~1993 (source code available from > > UUNET today) shows partially ordered insertion being applied to the > > current problem set. > > Er, that's "sorting on insertion", not "managing insertion order". Modulo some testing, my latest work-in-progress includes priority based sorting. -- Doug Rabson Mail: dfr@nlsystems.com Nonlinear Systems Ltd. Phone: +44 20 8442 9037 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message