[fpc-pascal] Threading vs Parallelism ?

[Michael Schnell]

On 30.03.2017 18:29, Jon Foster wrote:
>
> I say threading is parallelism, even if just one form of it. The other 
> methods of parallelism I mentioned here could also be done in FPC with 
> the appropriate code.
Threading is the way parallelism can be achieved using a "standard" 
programming language and running the result as a "standard" program on a 
"standard" OS with "standard" computer hardware.

Of course there are lots of other options such as Multiple Data CPU 
instructions, starting multiple programs. and even using FPGAs (to be 
programmed in languages like "VHDL" (where parallelism is the "simple" 
syntax, while sequential execution needs do be dedicatedly coded).

The only thing that seems to be a viable option for a future "normal" PC 
compiler could be stuff like "parallel loops" (appropriate Pascal syntax 
is already done in Oxygene), as a syntax candy on a library allowing for 
parallelism by using a thread pool.

-Michael