Didier Kryn <kryn@???> writes:
> Le 22/07/2016 18:21, Brian Nash a écrit :
>> For example, when I discovered multithreading, all my programs used it
>> in some way, even when it was unnecessary.
>
> I sometimes use multithreading, but never mutexes. Mutex can be
> harmless if there's only one. Otherwise better use select()/poll() or
> you'll waste time or even dead-lock. It's amazing how the old select()
> paradigm is so much better than the modern mutex. I see mutex as an
> invention to relieve the programmer from thinking.

One of the advantages of having more than one thread of execution
running in the same address space is that these can communicate with
each other without going through the kernel. And 'a mutex' is just a
basic primitive for implementing this.