Re: thread-safety (was: gtk_timeout_add)

[Daniel Burrows <Daniel_Burrows brown edu>]

On Fri, Aug 13, 1999 at 06:03:22PM -0400, Christopher T. Lansdown was heard to say:
> Daniel,
> 	While what havoc said about Gtk+ not technically being thread
> safe, it's not far from being thread-safe.  The thread-safety rules go as
> follows:
> 	call g_thread_init() before gtk_main() or any other gtk/gdk/glib 
> calls.
> 	When using gtk/gdk calls, always surround them with
> gdk_threads_enter() and gdk_threads_leave().
> 	That's it.  You can now make Gtk/gdk calls from any thread, no
> making only one thread do the calls.  I've verified that this works, too.
> Of course, gdk_threads_enter() and gdk_threads_leave() is a bit of typing
> overhead, but it is worth it, believe me.  While this is technically not
> thread-safe behavior (since thread-safety means that the gtk/gdk calls do
> this themslef), it is close enough in practice, I think. :-)
> 	-Chris

  Ah, I see.  Would it be possible for the next iteration of GTK+ to do
preprocessor magic along the lines of..

#ifdef _REENTRANT
#define gtk_widget_activate(wid) \
   { gdk_threads_enter(); gtk_widget_activate(wid); gdk_threads_leave(); }
#endif

 ... or would it be too much trouble and destroy readability of the headers?

  Daniel

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