>>> On Monday, October 29, 2012 11:35:14 AM UTC-5, Lucas Levrel wrote:

>>>> If it already uses Pthreads and compiles on these platforms, where's the
>>>> worry? Just stick with the Pthread implementation of the threads concept.

>> Please trim your lines and tidy up the mess google makes of your replies!

> Trying.

>>> There's no desire to have it run only on platforms that can run for a
>>> month or more without any interruptions.  Adding checkpoints so that it
>>> can resume with less computer time lost due to any interruptions REQUIRES
>>> understanding threads so that I can suspend all threads except the main
>>> thread when writing checkpoints or restoring from them.  I don't yet know
>>> if it also requires telling all the other threads to place information
>>> specific to those threads where the main thread can find it and include it
>>> in the checkpoint..

>> Applications like BOINC typically dish out units of work to client
>> machines and these in turn pass them on to worker threads.  In this
>> case, it makes sense for the unit of work to be scaled to be a) useful
>> and b) small enough so not too much is wasted if the machine dies during
>> processing.

>> Saving state part way through a work unit probably isn't worth while.

>> Make your "checkpoints" the completion of a work unit.

> There's no good division of the process to allow the many of the workunits to
> be less than a month long, and sometimes longer.  If there was, checkpoints
> would already be available.