[Python-Dev] [PEP 3148] futures - execute computations asynchronously

[Bill Janssen]

skip at pobox.com wrote:

> 
>     Jesse> http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/concurrent/Future.html
> 
> Without reading that I can assure you that not everybody has drunk the Java
> Kool-Aid.  Just because Sun thought it was a fine term doesn't mean everyone
> else will.  I've been a professional programmer for about 30 years, have
> never touched Java, and the only times I've seen its effect in Python I have
> been unimpressed (logging and unittest).
> 
> Google for "future".  The Java doc is aways down on the front page.  Now
> Google for "futures". It's nowhere to be found.  As far as I can tell, all
> but one hit on the first page are for my definition of "futures".  At the
> bottom of the page the "searches related to _futures_" are all related to
> trading futures or other derivatives except one.  That appears to be related
> to the LPGA futures tour.  Java and its definition of the term is nowhere to
> be found.

This term, the "future", has been in use at least since 1985, even if
the Web hasn't, and even if Google can't seem to separate this use from
drivel about stock trading.  See Halstead's 1985 TOPLAS paper on
MultiLisp.

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.97.1841

Bill