[m-users.] spawn in Rosettacode

[Peter Ross]

Hi Robert,

On 29 August 2014 13:29, Robert Smart <robert.kenneth.smart at gmail.com> wrote:
> At http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Concurrent_computing#Mercury, we see:
>
> main(!IO) :-
>    spawn(io.print_cc("Enjoy\n"), !IO),
>    spawn(io.print_cc("Rosetta\n"), !IO),
>    spawn(io.print_cc("Code\n"), !IO).
>
> It is a bit hard to understand how this could work. My beginner's
> understanding would be that the 2nd spawn couldn't happen till the first had
> produced the new world that is its input parameter. Etc.
>
> And my compilation of it (on OSX) produces the outputs in the same order as
> in the program every time.
>
> It is interesting to consider how languages which explicitly thread IO (like
> Haskell and Mercury) should handle multiple interactions with the world
> where the order doesn't matter, so that concurrency can be done implicitly
> or explicitly.
>
Mercury handles this by the determinism, it's not det but cc_multi
(committed choice multi).  cc_multi means that there are 1 or more
solutions (multi) but the compiler will commit to only one of those
solutions (cc - committed choice).

A det program on the other hand says there is only one solution, so
you would always get the results in the same order.

Regards,
Pete