Summary

Summary Windows supports threads that are independently scheduled but share the same process address space and resources. Threads give the programmer an opportunity to simplify program design and to exploit parallelism in the application to improve performance. Threads can even yield performance benefits on single-processor systems. Looking Ahead Chapter 8 describes and compares the Windows synchronization objects, and Chapters 9 and 10 continue with more advanced synchronization topics and extended examples. Chapter 11 implements the threaded server shown in Figure 7-1. Additional Reading Windows Multithreading Applications in Win32, by Jim Beveridge and Robert Wiener, is an entire book devoted to Win32 threads. Multithreaded Programming with Win32, by Thuan Pham and Pankaj Garg, and Win32 Multithreaded Programming, by Aaron Cohen et al., are two additional choices. Many of these books have not been updated for Windows 2000, XP, and 2003, however. UNIX and Pthreads Stevens (1992) does not cover threads in UNIX, but Programming with POSIX Threads, by David Butenhof, is recommended. This book provides numerous guidelines for threaded program design and implementation. The information applies to Windows as well as to Pthreads, and many of the examples can be easily ported to Windows. There is also good coverage of the boss/worker, client/server, and pipeline threading models, and Butenhof's presentation is the basis for the model descriptions in this chapter.