Re: [Boost-users] Boost-users Digest, Vol 1640, Issue 4

From: Richard L. Aurbach (rick_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-05-22 18:04:42

> Anthony Williams <anthony.ajw_at_[hidden]> writes:
>
> Chris Ross <cross+boost_at_[hidden]> writes:
>
>>  Hi there.  This is an introductory question as I've just started to
>> play with boost libraries.  If this would be better on the threads- 
>> devel
>> list, let me know, but I thought starting here would be good.
>
> Here is fine.
>
>>  I was playing with the threads library in 1.35, and I noticed that I
>> can't (with gcc 4.3 on Linux) put boost::thread objects into an STL
>> container.  I think I was trying with a std::vector, in case that
>> matters.
>
> No, you can't do that. You need a container that can handle
> movable-but-not-copyable objects. Not only that, but it needs to
> handle the thread move emulation.
>
>>  I was reading in some of the C++0x documents that it's expected that
>> the standard library thread implementation is expected to be able to
>> have this work.  The boost documentation doesn't explicitly say  
>> whether
>> it should work or not.  Is being non-copyable but movable enough to  
>> make
>> this work?  Or, would an object have to be copyable to be put into an
>> STL container?  I thought that was not the case, but.
>
> Non-copyable but movable is indeed enough for a class to be used in a
> C++0x STL container. I don't know whether the containers with gcc 4.3
> have that support in -std=c++0x mode or not. The current trunk has
> some rvalue reference support in boost::thread, so it may well work,
> but I haven't tried it.

Wouldn't another option be to create a vector of shared_ptr's of  
boost::thread objects?? The shared_ptr's work in vectors just fine,  
plus they provide a convenient way to pass around a non-copyable  
object like a thread, as well as other thread-pool functions.

Cheers,

Rick Aurbach, Ph.D.
Aurbach & Associates, Inc.