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6. What is use of threads? Give any three praccal examples where threads may be
required. Why and how can you change thread priority?
Ans: Understanding Threads:
In the world of computer programming, a thread is like a small unit of a process. Imagine a
process as a big task, and a thread as a smaller subtask within that process. Threads allow a
computer to do mulple things at once, or at least appear to be doing so.
1. Why Use Threads?
Computers are excellent at multasking, and threads help take advantage of this capability.
Here are three praccal examples of where threads might be required:
Example 1: User Interface Responsiveness Consider a music player applicaon. While the
main process is responsible for playing music, you'd also want the user interface (UI) to
remain responsive. Without threads, if the main process is busy playing music, the UI might
freeze, making the applicaon seem unresponsive to the user. With threads, you can
separate tasks – one thread for playing music, another for handling the UI. This ensures that
even if one thread is busy, the others can connue to work, providing a smoother user
experience.
Example 2: Web Browsing In a web browser, when you open a new tab, the browser doesn't
stop you from interacng with your current tab. Behind the scenes, dierent threads handle
dierent tasks – one for rendering the current page, another for loading the content of the
new tab, and so on. This makes the browsing experience seamless.
Example 3: Gaming In a video game, there's a lot happening at once – graphics rendering,
user input processing, AI computaons, etc. Threads allow these dierent aspects of the
game to happen concurrently. For instance, one thread might handle rendering the graphics,
while another manages user input, ensuring the game responds quickly to player acons.
2. How to Change Thread Priority:
Thread priority is a way to tell the operang system how important a thread's task is
compared to other threads. Higher priority threads get more aenon from the CPU.
Changing thread priority can be necessary for opmizing performance. Here's why and how
you might do it:
Why Change Thread Priority:
• Resource Allocaon: If you have a crical task that needs to be processed quickly,
you might increase the priority of its thread to ensure it gets more CPU me.
• Background Tasks: For non-urgent tasks like periodic updates or data
synchronizaon, you might lower the priority to avoid impacng the performance of
more crucial tasks.
• How to Change Thread Priority: Thread priority is oen represented as a number,
with higher numbers indicang higher priority. The exact method can depend on the