I am intending to drop support for MPTasks on the Mac platform in the thread rewrite. Since there currently are also no regression test builders available for the Mac platform I am polling the list if there are any objections against this plan. Background: I contacted the original contributor of the mac code in boost and got the below information:
These days, Mac OS 9 is obsolete, and anyone building on Mac OS X can just use the pthreads implementation. Therefore, I think that it's safe to move these old files. <<
The lowest-level threads on Mac OS X are Mach Threads (Mac OS X is based on BSD with a Mach kernel). pthreads sit directly above Mach Threads. The old Boost Threads implementation was based on MP tasks. MP tasks still exist on Mac OS X, but on top of TS Threads, which are on top of
and pthreads. << and
As I noted above, I don't believe the the Mac needs much special attention anymore, given the move to POSIX-based OS X. <<
This makes me believe, that it is safe to drop support for MPTasks entirely. However in the thread rewrite it will be possible to get both, a default build that relies on pthread being available and native support if possible. So if anyone thinks boost thread on Mach Threads is meaningful, please contact me at the thread devel list. BTW.: Possibly the 1-34 release should write out a message that informs users of MPTasks that support will be dropped? Roland