Updating (showing) the widgets of a dialog in a g_thread

[Andrew Smith <asmith15 littlesvr ca>]

Hi

I have the following setup:

gpointer thread1(gpointer data)
{
    run_long_function();
    return NULL;
}

gpointer thread2(gpointer data)
{
    GtkWidget* dialog;

    gdk_threads_enter();
        dialog = gtk_message_dialog_new(GTK_WINDOW(win_main),
                  GTK_DIALOG_DESTROY_WITH_PARENT,
                  GTK_MESSAGE_INFO, GTK_BUTTONS_CLOSE, "asd");
        gtk_window_set_modal(GTK_WINDOW(dialog), TRUE);
        gtk_widget_show(dialog);
    gdk_threads_leave();

    while (thread1 is running)
    {
        gdk_threads_enter();
            //!! I want to make sure the dialog is shown
            // the following does not help
            while (gtk_events_pending())
                gtk_main_iteration();
        gdk_threads_leave();

        usleep(500000);
    }

    gdk_threads_enter();
        gtk_widget_destroy(dialog);
    gdk_threads_leave();

    return NULL;
}

I start the two threads using g_thread_create() and the while in 
thread2() loops while thread1() executes (this is good). But the widgets 
in the dialog aren't shown until the loop ends and the dialog is closed 
(this is not good).

I would like to be able to click a cancel button while thread1() executes.

Help?

Thanks in advance.

Andrew