Re: [boost] 1.36 thread library

From: vicente.botet (vicente.botet_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-07-31 18:24:51

Hi Anthony,

It should be great if the Thread library documentation included a History 
section and include the changes since 1.35 that we can already found in the 
Version 1.36.0 page (http://beta.boost.org/users/news/version_1_36_0)

The  create_thread interface evolution is not present in the doc.
Replace
  thread* create_thread(const function0<void>& threadfunc);
by
  template<typename F> thread* create_thread(F threadfunc);

BTW, as you have enhanced the interface for the thread construction

    template <class F,class A1,..., class An> thread(F f,A1 a1,..., An an);

why not to apply the same schema to the create_thread function of the 
thread_group class?

Just one minor sugestion: The guard on the create_thread function should be 
declared after the thread creation to limit the scope of the mutex lock.

template<typename F>
thread* create_thread(F threadfunc)
{
    std::auto_ptr<thread> new_thread(new thread(threadfunc));
    {
        boost::lock_guard<mutex> guard(m);
        threads.push_back(new_thread.get());
    }
    return new_thread.release();
}

Reading the code we see that the thread_group class is thread safe using an 
internal mutex. Is this is part of the contract it is not documented? In 
addition an application creating/adding all the threads of a group in one 
thread do not needs this thread safety. Following the C++ phylosophy "don't 
pay for what you don't use", should't this class be parameterized by a 
synchronization policy.

Best,

Vicente