Consider StartImmediateAsTask instead of StartAsTask to prevent a thread hop

[abelbraaksma]

In PR #114 (adding support for Async in Bind), @bartelink raised the question whether it would be better to use StartImmediateAsTask instead of StartAsTask.

Specifically, it is about this part:

let mutable awaiter =
    Async
        .StartAsTask(asyncSource, cancellationToken = sm.Data.cancellationToken)
        .GetAwaiter()

The current approach was taken to mimic the same approach taken for task in F# Core: https://github.com/dotnet/fsharp/blob/d91b6c5c97accf363d135d1f99816410da4ec341/src/FSharp.Core/tasks.fs#L462, basically:

member inline this.Bind(computation: Async<'TResult1>, continuation: ('TResult1 -> TaskCode<'TOverall, 'TResult2>)) : TaskCode<'TOverall, 'TResult2> =
    this.Bind(Async.StartAsTask computation, continuation)

For comparison, see what was done in async2, which was poised to be the new async based on resumable code, like task is, but unlike task cold-started like the current async.

So, we have two scenarios:

• use StartAsTask to get similar semantics as the task CE, but this causes a thread hop
• use StartImmediateAsTask, which uses the current context

I'm not aware of any downside of using the latter. It definitely saves a thread switch in the general case (note that the thread pool may not always cause a physical thread switch).

[abelbraaksma]

This seems relevant as well: dotnet/fsharp#11043 (comment)

That comment by @dsyme basically suggests not to use StartAsStask. Tbh, I didn't know it started in the thread pool, we have Async.Start already, I figured, as a task, it behaves like task: stay in the same context.

I figured, maybe just report as a bug to F#: dotnet/fsharp#14490

[abelbraaksma]

Thanks for bringing this up @bartelink. It required some digging, and writing a context-switching test case, but I'm now convinced this is a bad situation to be in (tbh, as Don mentioned already, these methods should be differently named). Will write a PR to fix it.

[abelbraaksma]

The thread hop in F# Core task has been fixed. We should follow suit. See dotnet/fsharp#14499.