[erlang-questions] Ports and their owners

[Ulf Wiger]

Robert Virding wrote:
> IIRC port_command was added to bypass the need to communicate via the
> port owner process. For what exactly what reason I can't remember.

I can. It was for performance, pure and simple.

Back in those days, term copying between processes was not quite as
well optimized as today, and the computers were slower too (I believe
that we were using 400 MHz UltraSPARCS in the AXD 301 then).
That extra message just to go via the port owner meant significant
overhead, and we were sending lots of messages through the port.

BR,
Ulf W
-- 
Ulf Wiger
CTO, Erlang Solutions Ltd, formerly Erlang Training & Consulting Ltd
http://www.erlang-solutions.com
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