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

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

On 18/10/11, Chris Vine wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:49:43 +1300
> "Gavin Lambert" <gavinl compacsort com> wrote:
> > There will be some caveats; despite using the same kernel primitives
> > they might not be using the same glibc elements, or may tack on
> > additional data. As such, you probably won't be able to convert a
> > std:: mutex into a Glib:: mutex, although in principle there
> > shouldn't be any problem in using a std:: mutex to wake up a Glib::
> > thread, or vice versa.  (This may depend on the specific
> > implementation of the library you use.)
> > 
> > It's also possible that one or the other have particular per-thread
> > init or cleanup requirements which won't be met by the other (I
> > recall the Win32 days when the CRT got grumpy if you used
> > CreateThread instead of _beginthread, and MFC got grumpy if you used
> > either instead of AfxBeginThread); I'm not really familiar enough
> > with either threading model to say definitively whether this will or
> > won't be an issue here.
> 
> Anyone who tries to "convert" a Glib::Mutex to a std::mutex, or to
> terminate a thread with a different call set from the one which created
> it, deserves everything they get.
> 
> I can't see any reason why using std::mutex to lock data in a thread
> created by Glib::Thread::create() should cause any difficulty.  It
> would be extremely difficult to create such a difficulty, as mutexes lie
> in the kernel. As well as being difficult, it would also be completely
> perverse for the gcc libstdc++ authors to pervert their system calls so
> as make std::mutex incompatible with gcc's pthread mutex
> implementation, and equally perverse for the visual studio authors to
> make std::mutex incompatible with windows critical sections.  Amongst
> other things, it would make it impossible for programs written for
> std::thread to call into native windows or unix-like libraries which
> happen to use their respective native implementations.
> 
> Chris
> 
> 

Thanks to both of you for the comments. It looks like I'll need to
experiment when the time comes.


Chris Gordon-Smith
www.simsoup.info