Re: [boost] Boost.Threads, N2178, N2184, et al

From: Yuval Ronen (ronen_yuval_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-03-21 17:20:56

Howard Hinnant wrote:
> Fwiw, this is the approach of N2184:
> 
>     http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2007/n2184.html
> 
> The very biggest change between boost::thread and N2184 is the  
> addition of cancellation.  And, imho, this is a huge change.
> 
> There are several more minor changes:
> 
> *  The N2184::thread is non-copyable like boost::thread, but movable  
> (taking advantage of new C++ language and std::lib features).  Movable  
> N2184::thread maintains the one-to-one mapping between the std::thread  
> and the OS thread which boost has (sole ownership semantics).  It just  
> adds the ability to move the thread between scopes (such as return  
> from factory functions).  I recently drew the analogy this way:
> 
> boost::thread is like a scoped_ptr to the OS thread.
> N2184::thread is like an auto_ptr to the OS thread (the proposed  
> unique_ptr would be a more accurate analogy).

Makes a lot of sense. Makes me wonder why the mutexes in N2094 are not 
movable also.

> *  N2184::thread separates out the concept of thread identity and  
> thread handle.  In boost these are both just boost::thread.  The  
> thread::id is copyable.  The only thing you can do with it is equality  
> compare it.

I think we might want it to be OutStreamable also. Mainly for debugging 
and logging purposes.