From: Ashley Moran <work@...>
Date: 2006-04-23T20:51:34+09:00
Subject: Re: How do threads and join work?


On Apr 23, 2006, at 12:33 pm, Pat Maddox wrote:

> Right, I mentioned that in my OP.  I want to know if there's a way to
> get join-like behavior - do not terminate the program until that
> thread has finished executing - without blocking.
>
> This gives the output I want, but doesn't actually perform what I
> want.  The ultimate goal here is to basically tell my program "Go
> start doing this in the background, and I'm going to keep working."

Sorry - missed your final point because I forgot to scroll down.  In  
future I won't write replies first thing Sunday morning :)

You can never join on your thread because it can only be terminated  
(cleanly) by setting the value of running to false

I don't see what's wrong with this (going back to your original code):

   running = true
   t = Thread.new do
     print "Thread started\n"
     while(running); end
     print "Thread finished\n"
   end

   do_work

   # Use one or: other of these depending on whether t is immortal
   running = false
   #t.join
   #puts "After join"

   puts "Program finished"

Maybe I have misunderstood whether you want to be in control of a  
thread that will run forever, or whether your while loop is just to  
simulate a long-running process?

Ashley