Tutorial: Using Threads in Perl 5.8(.1)?, Arthur Bergman

Content category:	Development in and with Perl
Room:	M1
Talk category:	Long Tutorial (180 minutes)

As did the first Perl release, 5.8 included stable working thread support in multiple platforms. This tutorial unlocks the potential of the threading system and shows how they can be used in advanced applications.

You will learn how the Perl threading architecture differs from most conventional threading architectures, to allow for more speed and less dependencies across threads. We will cover the limitations and possibilities of this alternative model.

How does the different core and CPAN modules interact in a threaded world -- are your modules thread safe or thread friendly? What changes are needed for your pure Perl modules to make them accept threads? How do you easily make XS modules thread safe and friendly?

We will also cover the normal pitfalls that threaded programming usually allows you to fall into, hints on how to avoid them, and if worst comes to worst, how to debug them.

Apache 2 is rapidly advancing its positions, and the Perl companion, mod_perl 2 is one of the most demanding threaded Perl environments, and uses threads exclusively on the Windows platform. We will look at examples on how to use the techniques we have learned and apply them to the threaded world of mod_perl 2 and apache 2.

If you would like to be a speaker on the Scandinavian Perl Workshop, please read the Call For Papers or contact us at <contact@copenhagen.pm.org>.