~~NOTOC~~
====== ''hey-guys'': LOL threading ======

===== Motivation =====
Every forum since dial-up BBSes supports concurrency as a basic concept. This has lead to many LOL constructs referencing concurrency constructs (1).

The following is a general proposal for threading constructs in LOLCODE. It also includes some necessary supporting definitions like arrays and a suggestion for strong typing.

===== Example Code =====
Liberally adapted from LLNL's tutorial (2). It incorporates much of the LOL standard (3).

<code>
  HAI
  CAN HAS STDIO?
  CAN HAS THREADS?
  I HAZ A NUM_THREADS ITZ 5

  SO IM LIKE HAIWORLD WITH THREADID
        I HAS A VAR 
        VAR IZ VISIBLE THREADID "SEZ: HELLO WORLD!"
        VAR IZ 0 ORLY?
        YA RLY
              WIN!
        NO WAI
              TL;DR
        KTHX
  KTHX

  I HAS MAH THREADS IZ NUM_THREADS MANY OF THREADS
  I HAS A RC ITZ 0
  I HAS A T
  IM IN YR LOOP
        VISIBLE "MAKIN THREAD " T " NOW!!"
        TELL RC IM MAKIN A NEW THREAD ABOUT HAIWORLD ITZ THREADS[T]
              O NOES
                    INVISIBLE "O NOES BAD THREAD CUZ " RC
                    KTHXBYE
        UP T!!1
  IM OUTTA YR LOOP
  KTHXBYE
</code>

===== Detailed Description  =====

=== Array Declaration ===
  I HAS MAH <name> IZ <###> MANY OF <TYPE>

Note IZ instead of ITZ, as this is an array declaration, not an initial assignment. Other array declarations are fine too

=== Thread spawning ===
  TELL <var_1> IM MAKIN A NEW THREAD ABOUT <function> ITZ <var_2>

This creates a new thread, running <function>, and sticks it in <var_2>. <var_2> can be an array as in the example above (THREADS[T]). The return code is stuck in <var_1>. 

=== Thread death ===
  WIN!

A successful, happy thread, spawning new macros and lols. (4)

  TL;DR

Dead thread, most likely due to waiting too long (4) (resource contention?)

==== Areas for expansion ====
  I MAKED U A COOKIE
  GIVED U A COOKIE
  TAKEN A COOKIE FROM DA JAR
  CAN I HAV COOKIE NOW PLZTHX?

Semaphore creation, passing, acceptance, and requests.

  HEY GUYS WHATS GOIN ON IN THIS THREAD? I'M ALL "<message to pass>"

Interthread communication structure.

===== References =====
  - [[http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Hey_guys_whats_going_on_in_here|Hey guys whats going on in here?]]
  - [[http://www.llnl.gov/computing/tutorials/pthreads/|LLNL reference on POSIX Threads Programming]]
  - [[functions]]
  - [[http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Thread|Threads]]

 --- //Authored by wohali, 2007/05/29 19:33//

===== Comments =====