Meaning – The term message queue, refers to a set of messages that are waiting to be processed by a program or to be sent to a terminal, display, or workstation.
It includes a sequence of work objects that are waiting to be processed. A message is the data transported between the sender and the receiver application; it’s essentially a byte array with some headers at the top.
The message queue paradigm is a sibling of the publisher/subscriber pattern and is typically one part of a larger message-oriented middleware system. Most messaging systems support both the publisher/subscriber and message queue models in their API.
Example of usage – “Message queues implement an asynchronous communication pattern between two or more processes/threads whereby the sending and receiving party do not need to interact with the message queue at the same time.”
