Threads without the Pain

Abstract

Much of today’s software deals with multiple concurrent tasks. Web browsers support multiple concurrent HTTP connections, graphical user interfaces deal with multiple windows and input devices, and Web and DNS servers handle concurrent connections or transactions from large numbers of clients. The number of concurrent tasks that needs to be handled increases while software grows more complex. Structuring concurrent software in a way that meets the increasing scalability requirements while remaining simple, structured, and safe enough to allow mortal programmers to construct ever-more complex systems is a major engineering challenge.