Re: Javaworld article on threads no. 9

["P.H.Welch" <P.H.Welch@xxxxxxxxx>]

> ...... here now is his ultimate 
> article - and he ends up describing something he calls `Active Objects'
> that look very much like JCSP/CJT threads to me communicating down
> buffered channels (although he calls them message queues)......
> ...
> see http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-06-1999/jw-06-toolbox.html

Thanks Jim!  I had a quick look.  The first part of the article is a little
odd ... I can't see anything complex being done like this.

The `Active Objects' stuff is just a thread acting as a server for a sequence
of Runnable objects sent down a buffered channel - the thread just executes
the run method of each one when it arrives.

It doesn't seem a general scheme though.  An `active object' in the CSP
sense is a process with its own life.  These could be as above, but they
can be so much more - e.g. doing things spontaenously and interacting with
other processes in so many interesting patterns.  The world still doesn't
know what it's missing.  If you understand CSP processes, you can do all
the stuff enabled by these specialised design patterns ... and anything
else as well.  CSP is a *general* theory and we now have the tools to apply
it to Java.

But I've only had a 7 minute read ... have I missed something ... ?!!

Peter.