Paul,
> Before I go off and try it, I'd like some advice on
> threads/processes and the UI.
>
> My news reader is beginning to actually do something now (I can
> browse newsgroups, read articles etc). However, some operations
> (like reading the headers of a big group) take ages. I'd like
> to do these in the background and update the UI as results come
> in.
Sounds great - good luck with it.
> DO I have to worry about synchronisation at all? Can I just set
> (say) the model of a presenter from any thread? Will screen
> updates work as expected?
>
> Any advice/war stories etc gratefully received :-)
You generally **DO** need to worry about synchronization; the good news is
that it's fairly easy to do. Have your background threads decide what they
want to add to the UI and then use something like
SessionManager current inputState queueDeferredAction:[
somePresenter model addAll:aCollection
].
You can also use timers, but, I find that threads with the right frightening
(but descriptive) mix of control structures and synchronization objects are
ultimately easier to write, debug and maintain than anything that I've been
able to do by breaking things up over little pieces of idle time. There is
some stuff on threads on the Wiki.
Have a good one,
Bill
--
Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
[hidden email]
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