- multi threaded programs usually uses one of the threads as means of synchronization
- there are message loops to pass unit of works (like Windows message queue)
- message queues require messages formats and convention for handling it
- single thread to handle ASP.NET request is waste of the resources (before .NET 2)
- thread pool was better but inconvenient to work with
- instead SynchronizationContext queues work for given context not thread
- thread have current context
- context does not have to be unique but can be shared between multiple threads
- thread can change context but this is rare
- SynchronizationContext keeps count of all asynchronous operations
- Windows Forms uses WindowsFormsSynchronizationContext
- WPF and Silverlight uses DispatcherSynchronizationContext
- Console app and WindowsServices and ThreadPool threads uses default SynchronizationContext
- ASP.NET uses AspNetSynchronizationContext
Further read:
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