Processes

• Multi-tasking capability available using threads (known as processes within SELF)

• Create using a message object:

  	(message copy
  		receiver: 
  		Selector: ) fork
  

• Every evaluation runs in a separate process.

• Processes assigned fixed-size stack, started with a message

Processes

The easiest way to create a process programmatically is by sending fork to a message object:

	
	(message copy receiver: 100 Selector: 'factorial') fork

Every computation started from an evaluator runs in its own process. The user interface has several processes of its own.

In Self 4.0, each process's stack is of fixed-size, allocated when the process starts.

These are useful messages to a process:

abort "kill the process"
suspend "suspend until resumed"
resume
waitForSuspension "returns when the process suspends"
waitForDeath "returns when the process dies"
returnValue "the return value of a completed process"
this "the currently executing process"