Re: [Algorithms] General purpose task parallel threading approach

[Mat N. <mat...@bu...>]

Ø  Generality and flexibility are considered desirable features in most cases - therefore pointing out the lack of flexibility in some aspect of a system is an entirely valid criticism.

I think the whole point of the other side of this discussion is that generality and flexibility are not necessarily desirable features.

MSN
From: Sebastian Sylvan [mailto:seb...@gm...]
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 11:07 AM
To: Game Development Algorithms
Subject: Re: [Algorithms] General purpose task parallel threading approach


On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 4:28 PM, Gregory Junker <gj...@da...<mailto:gj...@da...>> wrote:

"People write general systems all the time"



Oh? Describe one.



You continue to allude to this mythical "general system" - give us an example of what you consider a "general system" that people write all the time.

Honestly, you're just being difficult at this point.
A polymorphic linked list can be considered general in that it can store any kind of data in it, if you only allowed PODs (say), or just a single specific data type, it would be fair to say it's far more specialized. It would also be fair to count this as a drawback of the linked list implementation (not to say that there won't be specific instances where this drawback is paid for by other properties - but rigidity and specilization go in the "cons" column).

This clearly isn't a binary question where if something can't be used for any imaginable usage case then you might as well give up and ignore flexibility altogether.
Generality and flexibility are considered desirable features in most cases - therefore pointing out the lack of flexibility in some aspect of a system is an entirely valid criticism.


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Sebastian Sylvan
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