From: Bill Kelly <billk@...>
Date: 2004-07-15T03:54:07+09:00
Subject: system threads (was: Re: No Subject)

Hi,

From: "ts" <decoux@moulon.inra.fr>
> >>>>> "J" == Jesse van den Kieboom <troplosti@orcaweb.cjb.net> writes:
>
> J> System threads. I don't use threading myself but GTK+ (or pango, I'm not
> J> sure) seems to thread.
> 
>  ruby don't really like system threads : try to avoid it if you can

I'm beginning development of an embedded ruby application,
where I want to run ruby in a separate system thread
(not the main thread), and run an OpenGL renderer (C/C++)
in the main thread.

However I plan to never have the main thread call the ruby
interpreter directly, or vice-versa.  The ruby thread and
the renderer thread will communicate via a command queue
data structure, with appropriate access synchronization.
And data owned by the ruby garbage collector will never
be seen by other threads.

What I'm wondering is, does this sound like a fairly trouble-
free approach?  Or am I still stepping into dangerous 
territory here?  I'm hoping that by keeping the ruby thread
completely separate from the other thread(s) (except for
communication through the queueing mechanism) that I should
be safe from thread-related issues with the ruby interpreter.

However, if what I'm attempting is already known to be
fraught with problems, I'd definitely like to know!  :)

Thanks for any insight and advice.

Regards,

Bill