[PD] -rt for whom?

[chris clepper]

A few notes about -rt mode:

First, -rt is different on OSX compared to Linux.  On Linux, the flag 
sets the priority of the pd process just like nice or renice, but on 
OSX -rt set priority using a pthread scheduling call.  The difference 
is due to how each OS handles scheduling of tasks - Linux by PID and 
OSX by threads.  The proper way to schedule a 'real-time' thread on OSX 
is to use the kernel threading API which guarantees time slices for a 
given process.  Pd would have to undergo a but of reworking to use this 
though (the DSP would have to go in it's own thread separate from the 
GUI and main routines).

Second, the issues with -rt and video/GL appear to be different for 
each platform.  On OSX, the problem is that the pthread scheduling 
works too well.  GEM simply locks out all other UI processes if CPU 
load gets too high.  This may appear like a freeze or lockup, but the 
system is actually chugging along as if everything is fine.  GEM 
performance with the higher priority enabled is phenomenal - no dropped 
frames, immediate movie loading, and low latency.  It's just far too 
easy to have GEM lock you out of all other UI though, which is not a 
good tradeoff.

Following Tom's idea about turning RT on and off by routine, I should 
look into something like setting the pthread priority right before and 
immediately after the render callbacks.  This might give the render 
chain enough time to work while providing a breather for the task 
manager to allocate time to other lower priority processes.  I have no 
idea what the overhead would be for calling these many times a second.

cgc