On 8 Nov 2013, at 11:16 AM, Graham Cox <graham....@bigpond.com> wrote:
> What’s the proper way to do this? I *can* open the file on another thread and
> let the main thread run normally, and that’s fine, but I do need a solution
> that works for when the file is opened on the main thread.
With the humblest intention in the world, and admitting I don't know your use
case…
You seem to suggest that "opening the file on the main thread" might be
unavoidable. Is this because the process of identifying, opening, reading,
processing, and closing the file might be confined to a third-party library
that isn't thread-safe? I can't imagine another way you couldn't pass a path,
URL, or file descriptor into a thread. (I have a limited imagination.)
If you're not in that situation, I suggest doing whatever you prudently can to
load the file on a background thread every time. It factors your app by cutting
your code paths in half, and you don't have to rely on cooperative multitasking
to keep up a responsive UI. If you're just filling a buffer or interpreting a
stream from a file, and don't need to display partial results other than
progress, you're in about the least-hard thread-confinement situation you can
have.
That's my esthetic. There are excellent developers who use a cooperative
runloop with good results.
— F
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