From: Ian Main <imain@...>
Date: 2000-02-27T11:34:56-08:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:01600] Re: Ruby/GTK and the mainloop

On Sat, Feb 26, 2000 at 03:51:32PM +0900, Masaki Fukushima wrote:
> Ian Main <imain@gtk.org> wrote:
> > GTK has good facilities for this.. from looking through ruby source code
> > again, it looks like ruby needs only:
> > 
> > * The ablity watch file descriptors for read/write readiness.
> > * A timeout for sleep() and similar functions.
> 
> Yes, and select system call exactly provides these facilities.

Yes, select() more less == mainloop in terminology.

> And these facilities are also enough for GTK, aren't they?
> So the simplest solution is the integration of select, IMHO.
> Fortunately, GTK provides g_main_set_poll_func() for this purpose.
> 
> The advantage of this approach is the simplicity.  Both GTK and
> Ruby can assume mainloop control.  GTK mainloop can be considered
> as a Ruby thread.  Ruby thread scheduler yields the control to
> GTK when GUI event occurs.
> 
> The problem with this approach:
> 
>  * Toolkit must provides select substitution API such as
>    g_main_set_poll_func().  I don't know that other toolkits than
>    GTK provide one.

and g_timeout_add for sleep () etc. right ?  This is what I was thinking.

>  * rb_thread_select() needs improvement to avoid busy wait with
>    more than one thread.  This involves eval.c hacking...
> 
> > Hopefully I am not missing any issues here.. if someone knows something I
> > don't please let me know! :)
> 
> My approach lacks the point of embedding Ruby as your Entity.
> Plese tell me if you find something wrong with this approach.

I think we are both thinking the same thing, so it should be fine.  I
beleive most other toolkits provide similar functions.

Entity uses GTK, so really, if you can get gtk and ruby working nicely, it
should embed nicely in Entity too.

Ian