Re: Can a Multi-Threaded GTKMM Application Use std::thread Rather Than Glib::Thread?

[Chris Gordon-Smith <c gordonsmith gmail com>]

Hello Chris

Thanks for this. Yes - I've used Glib::Dispatcher, thanks to a large
degree to your posting to this list back in March!

I have used Glib::Thread to give myself a GUI Thread and a simulation
thread, so that my GUI remains active even while the simulation is
running. I now have a choice if I want to multithread the simulation
thread for parallelism. Either I extend the use of Glib::Thread, or I
use std::thread, in which case anyone trying to understand my program
(including me!) has to understand two threading systems.

Chris Gordon-Smith
www.simsoup.info


On 16/10/11, Chris Vine wrote:
> On Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:44:53 +0100
> Chris Gordon-Smith <c gordonsmith gmail com> wrote:
> > My question is: Could I have avoided use of Glib::Thread altogether,
> > and just used std::thread?
> 
> You can use C++11 threads fine with glib/glibmm, because the C++
> standard library will almost certainly use the native threading
> implementation underneath (pthreads or windows threads) - that is
> expected by std::thread::native_handle() - but even if it doesn't, it
> will use the same kernel primitives. However, to do anything meaningful
> with your program you will probably have to communicate with the thread
> running the GTK+ gui from time to time. If you are going to avoid using
> the GDK global lock, which is much to be desired, then you will end up
> using Glib::Dispatcher, and so glibmm.  You will also need to make glib
> thread safe by a call to Glib::Thread::init(), although this
> requirement will disappear once glib-2.32 comes out.
> 
> This is touched upon by the draft documentation at the end of this now
> very lengthy bug report at on glibmm/gtkmm threading at
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=512348 , which might give
> you some tips, but has become becalmed by a lack of interest.
> 
> Chris
> 
>