What is Thread (computer science)?
[[File:Multithreaded process.svg|thumb|A process with two threads of execution.]] A '''thread''' in [[computer science]] is short for a ''thread of execution''. Threads are a way for a [[computer program|program]] to ''split'' itself into two or more simultaneously (or pseudo-simultaneously) running [[task (computers)|tasks]]. Threads and [[process (computing)|processes]] differ from one [[operating system]] to another but, in general, a thread is contained inside a process and different threads in the same process share the same resources while different [[process (computing)|processes]] in the same [[multitasking]] [[operating system]] do not. Threads are lightweight, in terms of the system resources they consume, as compared with processes. ==Sources== *David R. Butenhof: ''Programming with POSIX Threads'', Addison-Wesley, {{ISBN|0-201-63392-2}} *Bradford Nichols, Dick Buttlar, Jacqueline Proulx Farell: ''Pthreads Programming'', O'Reilly & Associates, {{ISBN|1-56592-115-1}} *Charles J. Northrup: ''Programming with UNIX Threads'', John Wiley & Sons, {{ISBN|0-471-13751-0}} *Mark Walmsley: ''Multi-Threaded Programming in C++'', Springer, {{ISBN|1-85233-146-1}} *Paul Hyde: ''Java Thread Programming'', Sams, {{ISBN|0-672-31585-8}} *Bill Lewis: ''Threads Primer: A Guide to Multithreaded Programming'', Prentice Hall, {{ISBN|0-13-443698-9}} *Steve Kleiman, Devang Shah, Bart Smaalders: ''Programming With Threads'', SunSoft Press, {{ISBN|0-13-172389-8}} *Pat Villani: ''Advanced WIN32 Programming: Files, Threads, and Process Synchronization'', Harpercollins Publishers, {{ISBN|0-87930-563-0}} *Jim Beveridge, Robert Wiener: ''Multithreading Applications in Win32'', Addison-Wesley, {{ISBN|0-201-44234-5}} *Thuan Q. Pham, Pankaj K. Garg: ''Multithreaded Programming with Windows NT'', Prentice Hall, {{ISBN|0-13-120643-5}} *Len Dorfman, Marc J. Neuberger: ''Effective Multithreading in OS/2'', McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, {{ISBN|0-07-017841-0}} *[[Alan Burns]], [[Andy Wellings]]: ''Concurrency in ADA'', Cambridge University Pre