Thread (computer science)

A thread in computer science is short for a thread of execution. Threads are a way for a program to split itself into two or more simultaneously (or pseudo-simultaneously) running tasks. Threads and processes differ from one operating system to another. 

In general, a thread is contained inside a process and different threads in the same process share the same resources. Different processes in the same multitasking operating system do not share the same resources. 

Threads are lightweight, in terms of the system resources they consume, as compared with processes.

Sources
David R. Butenhof: Programming with POSIX Threads, Addison-Wesley, 
Bradford Nichols, Dick Buttlar, Jacqueline Proulx Farell: Pthreads Programming, O'Reilly & Associates, 
Charles J. Northrup: Programming with UNIX Threads, John Wiley & Sons, 
Mark Walmsley: Multi-Threaded Programming in C++, Springer, 
Paul Hyde: Java Thread Programming, Sams, 
Bill Lewis: Threads Primer: A Guide to Multithreaded Programming, Prentice Hall, 
Steve Kleiman, Devang Shah, Bart Smaalders: Programming With Threads, SunSoft Press, 
Pat Villani: Advanced WIN32 Programming: Files, Threads, and Process Synchronization, Harpercollins Publishers, 
Jim Beveridge, Robert Wiener: Multithreading Applications in Win32, Addison-Wesley, 
Thuan Q. Pham, Pankaj K. Garg: Multithreaded Programming with Windows NT,  Prentice Hall, 
Len Dorfman, Marc J. Neuberger: Effective Multithreading in OS/2, McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, 
Alan Burns, Andy Wellings: Concurrency in ADA, Cambridge University Press, 
Uresh Vahalia: Unix Internals: the New Frontiers, Prentice Hall, 
Alan L. Dennis:  .Net Multithreading , Manning Publications Company, 
Tobin Titus, Fabio Claudio Ferracchiati, Srinivasa Sivakumar, Tejaswi Redkar, Sandra Gopikrishna: C# Threading Handbook, Peer Information Inc, 
Tobin Titus, Fabio Claudio Ferracchiati, Srinivasa Sivakumar, Tejaswi Redkar, Sandra Gopikrishna: Visual Basic .Net Threading Handbook, Wrox Press Inc, 

 Other websites 
 Multiple Threading in C# , Association for Technotechmedia, August 2016, by Isha Chopra
Article "Query by Slice, Parallel Execute, and Join: A Thread Pool Pattern in Java " by Binildas C. A.
Ars Technica article about multithreading, etc
Answers to frequently asked questions for comp.programming.threads 
The C10K problem
Article "The Free Lunch Is Over: A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software" by Herb Sutter
Article "The Problem with Threads " by Edward Lee
parallel computing community 
POSIX threads explained by Daniel Robbins
Multithreading in the Solaris Operating Environment 
Developer's Reference and tutorial 

Category:Computer science