random.gauss vs. random.normalvariate

[Paul Rubin]

Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed at ix.netcom.com> writes:
> > > 	No language can guard against independent access of a shared/global
> > > object by multiple threads...
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlang_(programming_language)
> """
> Like operating system processes (and unlike green threads and operating
> system threads) they have NO SHARED STATE between them.
> """
> which seems to reinforce my statement, not refute it.

Id say Erlang guards against independent access of shared/global
objects by not allowing them.

> (The Amiga was heavily dependent upon message ports... Having to
> copy data buffers between processes would have slowed the system
> down drastically [8MHz processor, in those days],

It's perfectly ok for Erlang implementation to just pass pointers
around, when the processes are on the same machine.  Erlang prohibits
data mutation so there isn't an issue of a process modifying some
structure while another process is using it.