965068 - Rename JS "worker" threads to something else. Please. Please. Pretty please!

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: JavaScript Engine, defect)

Description

[Ben Turner (not reading bugmail, use the needinfo flag!)]

We're getting lots of confusion over the fact that the JS engine names all their utility threads "workers" and the DOM has Web Workers. Can we please rename the JS threads to "utility" threads? "Helpers"? "Minions"? Anything would be wonderful.

Comment 1

[Jason Orendorff [:jorendorff]]

Let's call them "esdiscuss threads", that probably won't confuse anyone

Comment 2

[Jason Orendorff [:jorendorff]]

I asked on IRC.

<dom_workers> YES PLEASE i hate being confused with these losers
<ion_workers> i don't really care, whatever
<asmjs_workers> Oh! I see. That seems entirely reasonable.
<pjs_workers> Why should I change? He's the one that sucks.

Comment 3

[Nicholas Nethercote [inactive]]

bhackett and I decided in another bug (I can't remember which one) to call them "helper" threads.

Comment 4

[Dave Garrett]

-> Helper Monkeys

Comment 5

[Jason Orendorff [:jorendorff]]

(In reply to Nicholas Nethercote [:njn] from comment #3)
> bhackett and I decided in another bug (I can't remember which one) to call
> them "helper" threads.

This is what I'm doing. Except PJS threads will be called "fork-join threads".

Helper threads and fork-join threads share a workerId number space and I'm not totally sure what I'll call that yet; I'd pick "threadId" except NSPR has a concept of "thread id" and they're two different things.

Comment 6

[Shu-yu Guo [:shu]]

(In reply to Jason Orendorff [:jorendorff] from comment #5)
> (In reply to Nicholas Nethercote [:njn] from comment #3)
> > bhackett and I decided in another bug (I can't remember which one) to call
> > them "helper" threads.
> 
> This is what I'm doing. Except PJS threads will be called "fork-join
> threads".
> 
> Helper threads and fork-join threads share a workerId number space and I'm
> not totally sure what I'll call that yet; I'd pick "threadId" except NSPR
> has a concept of "thread id" and they're two different things.

If you're doing these mass renamings, ThreadPool should probably be ForkJoinPool or something. I don't see how you can avoid overloading "threadId" though. It just seems context-sensitive and confusing no matter what.

Comment 7

[Brian Hackett [Laid off!]]

Attachment: part 1

Rename WorkerThread stuff to HelperThread stuff.  After this lands I'll write patches to rename the jsworkers files themselves, and the PJS worker nomenclature.

Comment 8

[Brian Hackett [Laid off!]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/8105691cc616

Comment 9

[Brian Hackett [Laid off!]]

Attachment: part 2

Rename jsworkers.* to vm/HelperThreads.*

Comment 10

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/8105691cc616

Comment 11

[Brian Hackett [Laid off!]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/0e4aed0e0c71

Comment 12

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/0e4aed0e0c71

Comment 13

[Dave Garrett]

Is there a reason this is still left open?