Blocking

A blocking activity causes the thread (entire application) to hang.
Potentially blocking activities: web access, database access, working with files, working with images, WCF.

Multitasking (from Modern Cross-Platform Development)

Processes & Threads

• Process – has resources like memory and threads allocated to it.
• Threads – execute code, statement by statement.
  • By default, each process has only one thread.

Preemptive Multitasking

Simulates parallel execution of tasks.

• Divides processor time among threads into time slices.
• The current thread is suspended when switched to another.
  • The context of the current thread is saved and the context of the next thread in thread queue is loaded.
  • This takes time and resources to accomplish.