Multithreading and/or asynchronous task-processing of script code via the PurpleRobot namespace

[estory1]

There is no immediate need for the following request, but...

It would be cool (and potentially useful, for blocks of code that take an intolerably-long time) if, within the scripting layer (currently Javascript and Scheme), it were possible to instantiate threaded or asynchronous code.

Conceptually, imagine an API function like:

PurpleRobot.runInThread(scriptText)

where scriptText is the body of code to execute.

Then, the runThread call could spawn an instance of the script interpreter and execute the script (even if the language, like Javascript, does not support multithreading).

This would work for void returns (for "fire-and-forget" cases).

For non-void returns, I'm not immediately-sure what the right solution is; perhaps setting a return value for the interpreter's process exit?

As it stands, a less-efficient solution would be for the user/developer to run PurpleRobot.persist[Encrypted]String in the child thread, and PurpleRobot.fetch[Encrypted]String in the parent thread.

Foreseeable use-cases include:

• Making many closely-clustered I/O calls, or I/O calls with significant data-transfer.
• Heavier background computation. (e.g. running a stats or machine learning algo, e.g. SVM, to update a model after the user responds to some input).

[audaciouscode]

The only case where this makes sense is in the fire and forget scenarios. If you're doing heavy IO/CPU-bound work at the JS layer, that work should be brought into Javaland for better efficiency and control over the asynchronous concurrent processes.