With the always increasing needs for more responsive and better performing application, modern applications these mostly adopt concurrent computing model. In this model, a task is divided or split into multiple parts and then passed to a number of processing workers that will work on each part and then coordinate to help build the whole solution to the problem. Another case is when a stack of tasks or problems is forwarded to a number of processing workers having identical processing routine so that stack can be emptied faster. The application which applies the concurrent computing model is called concurrent application.

Two popular approaches have been widely used to address computation in a concurrent application: thread-based approach and event-based approach. Nowadays, event-based approach is a more likely to be found in the implementation of a concurrent application. Nonetheless, this does not mean that thread-based model never gains traction.

This article summarizes the paper with the same title, which offers thought-provoking argumentations on the merit of thread-based approach over event-based approach in developing a highly concurrent application. What’s interesting from the paper is not only does it provide conceptual and theoretical argumentation, it also shows some empirical results in the defense of the provoking statements.

You can download the presentation from the link below:

Why Events Are a Bad Idea (3168 downloads )