Threads mangle each others variables by default, and you need to explicitely guard yourself against that from happening. (Note that just *looking* at a variable can mean Perl changes the variable under the hood - it's not a safe operation.) fork is safe for your data, you need to explicitely share data (using shared memory for instance).

Not true. Variables under ithreads (what threads.pm implements) need explicit sharing. (You do this by saying my $variable : shared.) The difference is that Perl still manages your variables, so you don't have the problems inherent in using normal Unix IPC (such as it not meshing well with Perl).

Do you know which thread is going to handle a send signal? On any signal capable OS? I know when I fork().

I'm not sure about this, but I think Perl 5.8's new safe signals have a way to deal with this.

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--Brent Dax
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