Re: [ruby-gnome2-devel-en] main_iteration in threads lock up the main_thread?

[Mathieu B. <mbl...@ru...>]

Hi,

I've tested the code that Guillaume Cottenceau is using in booh to do 
GUI stuff from within Ruby threads, in Fantasdic. I can report it to 
work well and it seems to have fixed "random" crashes that I was 
experiencing. Here's how I included it in my application:

require "thread"

module Gtk
    # Thread-safety stuff.
    # Loosely based on booh, by Guillaume Cottenceau.

    PENDING_CALLS_MUTEX = Mutex.new
    PENDING_CALLS = []

    def self.thread_protect(&proc)
        if Thread.current == Thread.main
            proc.call
        else
            PENDING_CALLS_MUTEX.synchronize do
                PENDING_CALLS << proc
            end
        end
    end

    def self.thread_flush
        if PENDING_CALLS_MUTEX.try_lock
            for closure in PENDING_CALLS
                closure.call
            end
            PENDING_CALLS.clear
            PENDING_CALLS_MUTEX.unlock
        end
    end

    def self.init_thread_protect
        Gtk.timeout_add(100) do
            PENDING_CALLS_MUTEX.synchronize do
                for closure in PENDING_CALLS
                    closure.call
                end
                PENDING_CALLS.clear
            end
            true
        end
    end
end

- I call Gtk.init_thread_protect once when I initialize my GUI stuff
- Every time I need to update my GUI from withing a thread, I do: 
Gtk.thread_protect do { ... }
- I call Gtk.thread_flush right after killing a thread when I ever 
happen to need kill a thread

HTH,

Mathieu Blondel