Best Practice for Busy Waiting in Java

[Archie Cobbs]

Just MHO...

This is kind of like asking "What's the best way to waste electricity?"

It's a nebulous question until you specify what "best" means in this odd
scenario....

-Archie

On Sun, Jun 15, 2025 at 11:09 AM Markus KARG <markus at headcrashing.eu> wrote:

> Recently I was asked by a programmer, what to do if there simply is no
> other way than actually busy-wait.
>
> I see several options:
>
> * Do nothing: Costs valuable CPU time and increases carbon footprint.
>
> * Do a power-nap: Thread.sleep(1)
>
> * Be fair: Thread.yield() gives other threads a chance to execute in
> this time slot.
>
> * Be eco-friendly: Thread.onSpinWait() could reduce carbon footprint.
>
> * A combination of that, like "Thread.yield(); Thread.onSpinWait();"
>
> As all of that has its pros and cons, and as all of that works
> differently on each hardware platform, I do wonder if there is some
> common sense / best practice for busy wait (other than "Replace it using
> async") in the core-libs team?
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Markus
>
>
>
>

-- 
Archie L. Cobbs
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