asynchronous task communication

[Charles Hixson <charleshixsn@earthlink.net>]

Is it possible to call an entry point of a task from another task and 
not wait for the task to finish?
I'm thinking of an entry point that would have only _in_ parameters, and 
which is not expected to fail, but the thread called might be busy, so 
I'd like to just queue it and go on to something else.  This doesn't 
appear to be what an "asynchronous select" does, though I'll admit I'm 
not sure, as I can't tell why they call it asynchronous...timed seems 
more reasonable than asynchronous,

What I'm after is sort of like sending a letter from one task to 
another.  The sender doesn't need to wait for the receiver to accept the 
message (though, ideally, there would also be a "return receipt 
requested" option).

The only alternative that I've come up with is to have each task have an 
access variable to a protected type instance.  This can be done, but it 
makes the control in other parts of the program trickier.