Threads

There is a very preliminary interface to create parallel threads. The interface is similar to the standard delay/force, where a thread is basically the same as a promise, except that evaluation may be in parallel.

Syntax: future expression

Creates a new thread that evaluates expression.

(The result extends java.lang.Thread and implements gnu.mapping.Lazy.)

Procedure: force thread

The standard force function is generalized to also work on threads. It waits for the thread’s expression to finish executing, and returns the result.

Procedure: runnable function

Creates a new Runnable instance from a function. Useful for passing to Java code that expects a Runnable. You can get the result (a value or a thrown exception) using the getResult method.

Syntax: synchronized object form ...

Synchronize on the given object. (This means getting an exclusive lock on the object, by acquiring its monitor.) Then execute the forms while holding the lock. When the forms finish (normally or abnormally by throwing an exception), the lock is released. Returns the result of the last form. Equivalent to the Java synchronized statement, except that it may return a result.