The syntax is great as it exactly expresses what you want to achieve, however if your code is performance critical it is faster to:

Set r=$list(colors,1),o=$list(colors,2),y=$list(colors,3)

Hopefully the 'set $lb' syntax will be optimized at some point as it is clearer than the multiple $list alternative and it should be possbible to make it faster.

Both these issues are addressed in the version we have scheduled for 2016.2.

Previousy the worker jobs are owned by the process asking for the work, in the new version we have a global pool of jobs available for any work. This allows the work queue manager to work in CSP processes. Also when you ask for a work group you can now specify how many processes you require.

Note that the 'ForceJobs' setting is unsupported and undocumented so we may remove it at some point.