Re: [boost] Comments about N2320

From: Howard Hinnant (hinnant_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-10-30 18:24:32

On Oct 30, 2007, at 2:03 PM, Phil Endecott wrote:

> Howard Hinnant wrote:
>> Actually thread cancellation is old.  Many (not all) thread API's
>> have some form or another of cancellation.  That being said, the
>> compromise reached at the Kona meeting 4 weeks ago was to remove
>> cancellation (or interruption) from the proposal.  This removal is
>> reflected in N2411.
>
> That's unfortunate.  I'm a little confused about how completely
> removing it is a "compromise"!
>
> This is something that I need.  Does anyone know of an alternative
> (POSIX-compatible) C++ thread library that offers cancellation?  If  
> not
> I may try to write on.

A partial workaround is to religiously use cv::timed_wait, as opposed  
to cv::wait, so that you can wake up and discover if you're supposed  
to quit every once in a while.  It should be easy to set up a  
"cancel" flag that a thread can periodically check.  For example you  
could just pass a ref(bool) as one of the arguments in your thread- 
main function and reference that argument with thread local data.   
One will still have trouble waking from blocked system calls, but  
that's life.

-Howard