5 ms·
Very neat! > Go calls its threads goroutines as a pun on coroutines, to indicate that they're lighter than real operating-system threads. A pun? Maybe. But th
by slimsag 12y ago
Very neat!
> Go calls its threads goroutines as a pun on coroutines, to indicate that they're lighter than real operating-system threads.
A pun? Maybe. But the point of calling them go-routines instead of co-routines is that they _are not coroutines_.
There isn't a requirement of cooperation on the programmer's part as there usually is with coroutines (at least as I experienced them in Python, having to place Yield() calls to let other coroutines run).
With goroutines the cooperation is handled by the implementation/compiler -- i.e. Yield() calls are automatically inserted by the compiler -- rather than by the programmer manually by hand.
- ds300 12y ago> With goroutines the cooperation is handled by the implementation/compiler -- i.e. Yield() calls are automatically inserted by the compiler -- rather than by the programmer manually by hand. The compiler only inserts yeilds at some call sites. It's not a total solution like real preemptive scheduling, so you still need to be careful.
- Rapzid 12y agoThat's old information; every function call causes the check now.
- gtani 12y agoCorrect from 1.2, except inlined calls, see here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21102078/golang-methods-that-will-yield-goroutines http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21102078/golang-methods-t... and http://dave.cheney.net/2014/06/07/five-things-that-make-go-fast http://dave.cheney.net/2014/06/07/five-things-that-make-go-f...
- slimsag 12y agoNewer Go versions (1.2 I think?) use preemptive scheduling so you don't have to do anything special: that's my point entirely. Goroutines by specification have the potential to run all at the same time, in the exact way that OS-level threads do. In older _implementatoins_ of Go, goroutines were not preemptively scheduled, and exactly as you say you had to be careful.
- coldtea 12y ago>A pun? Maybe. But the point of calling them go-routines instead of co-routines is that they _are not coroutines_. Well, the pun explanation makes more sense. Because the mere fact that "they are not coroutines" doesn't explain their similar-to-coroutines name. Or rather, it does explain why they are not called "coroutines" but does explain why they were named to sound like coroutines at all.