This chapter covers
- Introduction to multithreading
- Introduction to asynchronous programming
- Asynchronous programming and multithreading used together
As software developers, we often strive to make our applications faster, more responsive, and more efficient. One way to achieve this is by enabling the computer to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, maximizing the use of existing CPU cores. Multithreading and asynchronous programming are two techniques commonly used for this task.
Multithreading allows a computer to appear as if it is executing several tasks at once, even when the number of tasks exceeds the number of CPU cores. In contrast, asynchronous programming focuses on optimizing CPU usage during operations that would typically make it wait, which ensures the CPU remains active and productive.
Enabling a computer to perform multiple tasks simultaneously is extremely useful. It helps keep native applications responsive while they work and is essential for building high-performance servers that can interact with many clients at the same time.
Both techniques can be employed to create responsive client applications or servers that handle a few clients. But when combined, they can greatly boost performance, allowing servers to handle thousands of clients at once.