[PD] object using a thread?

[Christian Klippel]

hi thomas and all,

Am Sonntag 28 August 2005 18:20 schrieb Thomas Grill:
> Hi Christian,
>
> > otherwise, using threads in PD is just like using threads anywhere
> > else.
> > use the pthread stuff (which also works on windoze mitlerweile), and
> > just
> > put some mutex's around your read/write operations.
>
> threads in PD is more difficult if you need to use PD functions therein.
> For that you can use sys_lock/sys_unlock (flext::Lock(),
> flext::Unlock()) to be sure to be the only thread, but that's
> sub-optimal because it may cause priority inversion (locking to
> real-time thread for too long a time).

thanks, but i got it mangled so far.
olaf matthes told me that his object to read the old cvbox uses a thread.

however, things are much more simple here.

> In flext you don't need to lock if you just want to send messages to
> the outlets. These and some other functions are thread-safe.
> The devel branch has some other very nice feature, namely idle
> processing via callback... in many cases this is much better than using
> a thread.
>

after all, i dont need any lock.
the thread only reads the usb bus with a really high timeout value.
it then fills one side of a double_buffer, while the other side is read by the 
metro-like tick in the ps object.
if that reading buffer is empty, the thread will switch the buffers, thats 
all. no pd functions involved in the thread.

> all the best,
> Thomas

thanks for the help, greets,

chris