4 ms·
They conflate a few different issues here, the first is interleaving which is ok since you don't really suffer a performance loss or mental setback. The other o
by lvecsey 18y ago
They conflate a few different issues here, the first is interleaving which is ok since you don't really suffer a performance loss or mental setback. The other one is a context switch, for example when a manager interrupts you with something trivial. Theres nothing more effective at stalling a high speed pipeline than that.
- scott_s 18y agoCan you explain what you mean by interleaving? My intuitive definition ends up being the same as multitasking.
- kylec 18y agoIf I understand it correctly, interleaving seems to be like cooperative multitasking, while being interrupted by the manager seems to be like preemptive multitasking.
- cconstantine 18y agoI'm guessing the grandparent post is talking about working on multiple (2, maybe 3) tasks. While waiting for something from one task like a compile/test run to complete or a response from another developer on a question, you can work on the other. This allows you to fill empty time with something productive and lets you context switch at favorable times. That kind of soft context switch is fairly easy to manage. A task coming and forcing a context switch in the middle of something incurs a much higher penalty.
- scott_s 18y agoStill sounds like plain 'ol multitasking to me, as does the other reply.
- fallentimes 18y agoBut with multitasking you're working on something at the direct cost of working on something else and indirect cost of time lost switching context. With this, you work on things while other items are being autoworked on (e.g. running a test or a crawl, downloading a file).
- cconstantine 18y agoNot exactly. As kylec said above it's a different kind of multitasking. But, in a pretty real way there is no way around this kind of multitasking. If you need the results of some long running task you don't stop existing. As a result you are doing something while waiting for those results, even if that 'something' is just staring at the wall. This is multitasking in the sense that over a period of time you will have worked on multiple things. But it isn't multitasking in the sense that you aren't doing two things at the same instant.
- marijn 18y agoHow do you interleave without switching contexts?