A number of month ago, I took a look at the new features of Java 1.5 and 1.6. And I fell on the new java.util.concurrent package.
Whoever programmed GUI interfaces in Java is certainly aware of the importance of using thread to run in the background in order to enable the user to perform other tasks and not just wait in front of a screen which is not refreshing. Using nice runnable threads, you could have a much more responsive GUI. A typical example was things of the sort:
Thread t = new Thread(){
public void run(){
// the task to perform which requires a certain amount of time
}
};
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(t);
This technique is really fundamental to a well programmed graphical interface.
But since Java 1.5, there are a number of supplementary structures which can be used to perform tasks in parallel. And these are found in the package java.util.concurrent which will be the topic of a future entry.
