fltk/documentation/advanced.html
Michael R Sweet 6e9a163035 Add handler for thread messages (STR #1536)
git-svn-id: file:///fltk/svn/fltk/branches/branch-1.1@5683 ea41ed52-d2ee-0310-a9c1-e6b18d33e121
2007-02-08 23:04:20 +00:00

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<TITLE>10 - Advanced FLTK</TITLE>
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<H1 ALIGN="RIGHT"><A NAME="advanced">10 - Advanced FLTK</A></H1>
<P>This chapter explains advanced programming and design topics
that will help you to get the most out of FLTK.</P>
<H2><A NAME="multithreading">Multithreading</H2>
<P>FLTK supports multithreaded application using a locking mechanism based on "pthreads". We do not provide a threading interface as part of the library. However a simple example how threads can be implemented for all supported platforms can be found in <tt>test/threads.h</tt> and <tt>test/threads.cxx</tt>.
<P>To use the locking mechanism, FLTK must be compiled with <tt>--enable-threads</tt> set during the <tt>configure</tt> process. IDE-based versions of FLTK are automatically compiled with locking enabled if possible.
<P>In <TT>main()</TT>, call <TT>Fl::lock()</TT> before <TT>Fl::run()</TT> to start the runtime multithreading support for your program. All callbacks and derived functions like <tt>handle()</tt> and <tt>draw()</tt> will now be properly locked.
<pre>
main() {
<a href="Fl.html#Fl.lock">Fl::lock()</a>;
/* run thread */
while(Fl::wait() > 0) {
if(<a href="Fl.html#Fl.thread_message">Fl::thread_message()</a>) {
/* process your data */
}
}
}
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<P>You can now start as many threads as you like. From within
a thread (other than the main thread) FLTK calls must be wrapped
in the following code:
<pre>
<a href="Fl.html#Fl.lock">Fl::lock()</a>; // avoid conflicting calls
... // your code here
<a href="Fl.html#Fl.unlock">Fl::unlock()</a>; // allow other threads to access FLTK again
<a href="Fl.html#Fl.awake">Fl::awake(msg)</a>; // tells FLTK that another thread has made changes
</pre>
<P>FLTK supports multiple platforms, some of them which do not
allow any other but the main thread to handle system events and
open or close windows. The safe thing to do is to adhere to the
following rules for threads on all operating systems:
<ul>
<li>Don't <tt>show()</tt> or <tt>hide()</tt>anything that contains
widgets derived from <tt>Fl_Window</tt>, including dialogs, file
choosers, subwindows or <tt>Fl_GL_Window</tt>s</li>
<li>Don't call <tt>Fl::wait()</tt>, <tt>Fl::flush()</tt> or any
related methods that will handle system messages</li>
<li>Don't start or cancel timers</li>
<li>Don't change window decorations or titles</li>
<li>The <tt>make_current()</tt> method may or may not work well for regular windows, but should always work for <tt>Fl_GL_Window</tt>s to allow for high speed rendering on graphics cards with multiple pipelines</li>
</ul>
<P>See also:
<a href="Fl.html#Fl.awake">void awake(void *message)</A>,
<a href="Fl.html#Fl.lock">void lock()</A>,
<a href="Fl.html#Fl.unlock">void unlock()</A>,
<a href="Fl.html#Fl.set_awake_cb">void set_awake_cb(void (*cb)(void *)</A>,
<a href="Fl.html#Fl.thread_message">void *thread_message()</A>.
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