Question

I have recently been using pthreads on Linux and want to start looking into using boost threads in the near future. I have never used MS visual studio so I don’t know the approach there but I (have to) use Embarcadero C++ Builder (formerly Borland) one of the few good things I find with it is that is has a built in class TThread. This is a class that you can derive from to give nicely encapsulated data and start and terminate functions. I prefer this approach than the pthread way of passing functions and void* being passed into the thread create function. I was wondering if there is some kind of design pattern or structure that is commonly used to provide a more object oriented that encapsulates the functionality of threads in this way? I can try and create it myself, but I cannot be the first person to desire this kind of approach and wondered if there was a “standard” way of achieving it.

Edit: Alternatively, if this is a very bad idea perhaps an illustration of why?

Answer 1

I would consider that the most standard approach would be using the standard thread library (closely related to boost::thread, not 100% the same). I would avoid redesigning what has already been designed, reviewed and verified by a committee of experts.

Also note that for the kind of operations that you mention in the comment you might want to take a look at the future part of the standard library (again similar to the boost counterpart), and in particular to the std::asynch function.