Question

With JDK >= 1.5, should the preferred way to start a thread always be an Executor or Executor Service, or are there still reasons to prefer to use a Thread.start if you don’t need what an ExecutorService provides?

For syncronized, I used to think that using the new Lock implemenations was preferred, until I was explained otherwise. So I’m wondering the same thing about Executors. Are they just a way of handling more complex cases, or should they be the standard choice?

Answer 1

Personally, since Java 5, I’ve completely left over Thread and ThreadGroup, as they provide way less customization and functionality than ExecutorService.

When using ExecutorService, I know I can use Callable, I know I can (with a little overhead) schedule repeated tasks. As a consequence, I consider direct instantiation of Thread objects deprecated code, as Vector and Hashtable are.