Parallel programming / Synchronization using JavaScript Web Workers

Question

Are there any synchronization primitives like Barriers, Semaphors, Locks, Monitors, ... available in JavaScript / Web Workers or is there

Answer 1

Web workers don't have a concept of shared memory; all messages that are passed between threads are copied. With that being said, you don't have Barriers, Semaphores, Locks, and Monitors, because you don't need them in the web worker model.

The concept of shared memory was proposed back in Feb 2011 but the status is now wontfix due to developer complexity => https://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-unassigned/2011-February/287595.html

There is also a nice blurb about web workers here. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/07/01/web-workers-in-ie10-background-javascript-makes-web-apps-faster.aspx

Hope this helps