Table of Contents

There is also a listing of tables, figures, and captioned examples.

Part I: Overview of Threads.h++




Chapter 1: Introduction

• 1.1 Welcome
• 1.2 Product Packages and Libraries
• 1.3 Software Requirements
• 1.4 Documentation
• 1.4.1 Printed Manuals
• 1.5 Using This Manual
• 1.5.1 Assumptions
• 1.5.2 Organization
• 1.5.3 Terminology and Notation
• 1.5.4 Examples
• 1.6 Documentation Conventions
• 1.6.1 Path Name Variables
• 1.6.2 Type Conventions
• 1.6.3 Naming Conventions
• 1.7 Technical Support
• 1.7.1 Before Contacting Technical Support
• 1.7.2 How to Contact Technical Support

Chapter 2: Product Overview

• 2.1 Background
• 2.2 The Threads.h++ Packages
• 2.2.1 Threading Package
• 2.2.2 Synchronization Package
• 2.2.3 Interthread Communication Package
• 2.2.4 Smart Pointer Package
• 2.2.5 Functor Package
• 2.2.6 Execution Tracing Package
• 2.2.7 Thread-compatible Exception Package
• 2.3 Using the Packages Together



Part II: Concurrency Packages




Chapter 3: The Threading Package

• 3.1 Introducing the Threading Package
• 3.1.1 Interpackage Dependencies
• 3.1.2 Including the Header Files
• 3.2 Definitions
• 3.2.1 Threads and Concurrency
• 3.2.2 Threads and Memory
• 3.2.3 Thread Safety
• 3.3 Threading Class Hierarchies
• 3.3.1 The Runnable Class Hierarchy
• 3.3.2 The Attribute Class Hierarchy
• 3.3.3 The IOU Class in the Threading Package
• 3.4 Using Threads
• 3.4.1 Creating Threads
• 3.4.2 Introducing the Runnable
• 3.4.3 Runnable Make Functions
• 3.4.4 Explicitly Constructing Functors and Runnables
• 3.5 The Runnable Object Classes
• 3.5.1 Defining a Runnable's Task
• 3.5.2 Creating Functor-based Runnables
• 3.5.3 Runnable State
• 3.5.4 Runnable Operations
• 3.5.5 Starting a Runnable
• 3.5.6 Joining a Runnable
• 3.5.7 Monitoring the Completion State of a Runnable
• 3.5.8 Catching and Rethrowing Exceptions
• 3.5.9 Interrupting a Runnable
• 3.5.10 Canceling a Runnable
• 3.5.11 Sleeping
• 3.5.12 Yielding Execution
• 3.5.13 Suspending and Resuming Execution
• 3.5.14 Terminating Execution
• 3.5.15 Monitoring the Execution State of a Runnable
• 3.5.16 Execution Nesting
• 3.5.17 Thread Identification
• 3.6 The Server Classes
• 3.6.1 Constructing a Server
• 3.6.2 Starting a Server
• 3.6.3 Enqueuing Runnables on a Server
• 3.6.4 Stopping a Server
• 3.6.5 Interrupting a Server
• 3.6.6 Canceling a Server
• 3.6.7 Using Server Pool Thread Attributes
• 3.6.8 Resizing a Server Pool
• 3.7 The Thread Pool Class
• 3.7.1 Constructing a Thread Pool
• 3.7.2 Starting a Thread Pool
• 3.7.3 Enqueuing Work on a Thread Pool
• 3.7.4 Stopping a Thread Pool
• 3.7.5 Considerations
• 3.8 Using Threads To Build Active Objects
• 3.8.1 Using Runnables
• 3.8.2 Using Runnable Servers
• 3.9 Thread Attributes
• 3.9.1 Thread Attribute Families
• 3.9.2 Thread Attribute Portability
• 3.9.3 Testing For Support
• 3.9.4 Querying Attribute Values
• 3.9.5 Setting Attribute Values
• 3.9.6 Default Attribute Values
• 3.9.7 Restoring Default Attribute Values
• 3.9.8 Determining the Legal Range For An Attribute
• 3.9.9 Scheduling Attributes
• 3.9.10 Stack Attributes
• 3.9.11 Initializing Threaded Runnables
• 3.9.12 Querying Threaded Runnables For Thread Creation Attributes

Chapter 4: The Synchronization Package

• 4.1 Introducing the Synchronization Package
• 4.1.1 Interpackage Dependencies
• 4.1.2 Including the Header Files
• 4.2 Definitions
• 4.3 Synchronization Class Hierarchy
• 4.3.1 The Synchronization Class Hierarchy
• 4.3.2 The Guard Class Hierarchy
• 4.4 Getting Started
• 4.4.1 Creating Two or More Threads that Access the Same Resources
• 4.4.2 Using Mutexes
• 4.4.3 Using Guards
• 4.4.4 Building Monitors
• 4.4.5 Using Condition Variables
• 4.5 The Synchronization Classes
• 4.5.1 The RWMutexLock Class
• 4.5.2 The RWFIFOMutexLock Class
• 4.5.3 The RWNullMutexLock Class
• 4.5.4 The RWTRecursiveLock Class
• 4.5.5 The RWReadersWriterLock Class
• 4.5.6 The RWCriticalSection Class
• 4.5.7 The RWSemaphore Class
• 4.5.8 The RWCondition Class
• 4.5.9 The RWBarrier Class
• 4.5.10 The RWTMonitor Class
• 4.6 The Guard Classes
• 4.6.1 Using a Lock Guard
• 4.6.2 Releasing and Reacquiring a Guarded Lock
• 4.6.3 Using the Unlock Guard Class
• 4.6.4 Using the RWTTryLockGuard Template Class
• 4.6.5 Using Classes with Read-Write Synchronization Resources

Chapter 5: The Interthread Communication Package

• 5.1 Introducing the Interthread Communication Package
• 5.1.1 Interpackage Dependencies
• 5.1.2 Including the Header Files
• 5.2 Definitions
• 5.2.1 Futures, IOUs, and Escrows
• 5.2.2 Producers, Consumers, and Blocking
• 5.3 Interthread Communication Class Hierarchies
• 5.3.1 The Producer-Consumer Class Hierarchy
• 5.3.2 The IOU Class Hierarchy
• 5.4 Using Interthread Communication
• 5.4.1 Using Producer-Consumer Queues
• 5.5 The IOU Classes
• 5.5.1 Testing for Empty IOU Handles
• 5.5.2 Constructing an IOU
• 5.5.3 Closing an IOU
• 5.5.4 Redeeming an IOU
• 5.5.5 Using IOUs
• 5.5.6 Waiting for IOUs
• 5.5.7 Trapping IOUs with RWTIOUTrap
• 5.6 The Producer-Consumer Classes
• 5.6.1 Value and Pointer Classes
• 5.6.2 Guarded and Prioritized Classes



Part III: Foundation Packages




Chapter 6: The Execution Tracing Package

• 6.1 Introducing the Execution Tracing Package
• 6.1.1 Interpackage Dependencies
• 6.1.2 Including the Trace Header Files
• 6.1.3 Trace Severity Levels
• 6.2 Execution Tracing Package Architecture
• 6.2.1 The Trace Output Pipeline
• 6.2.2 Trace Class Hierarchy
• 6.3 Using Trace
• 6.4 Using Set Declaration Macros
• 6.4.1 Package Declaration Macros
• 6.4.2 Class Declaration Macros
• 6.4.3 Function Declaration Macros
• 6.4.4 Setting Environment Variables for Event Sets
• 6.5 Using Event Generation Macros
• 6.5.1 Macros for Global Functions
• 6.5.2 Macros for Member Functions
• 6.5.3 Including Variables in Trace Messages
• 6.5.4 Trace Macros Example
• 6.6 Using the Trace Manager
• 6.6.1 The Trace Manager Buffer
• 6.6.2 Stopping Trace
• 6.6.3 Trace Manager Environment Variables
• 6.7 Using Trace Clients
• 6.7.1 Using the Predefined Client
• 6.7.2 Creating User-defined Clients
• 6.8 Using Trace Filters
• 6.8.1 Using the Predefined Filters
• 6.8.2 Chaining Multiple Filters
• 6.8.3 Creating User-defined Filters
• 6.9 Using Package-level Tracing
• 6.10 Controlling Trace Output
• 6.10.1 The RW_USER_TRACE_LEVEL Macro
• 6.10.2 The RW_TRACE_LEVEL Environment Variable
• 6.10.3 The RWTraceLevelFilter Class
• 6.10.4 Combining All Filtering Methods

Chapter 7: The Smart Pointer Package

• 7.1 Introducing the Smart Pointer Package
• 7.1.1 Interpackage Dependencies
• 7.1.2 Including the Smart Pointer Header Files
• 7.2 Smart Pointer Class Hierarchy
• 7.2.1 Template Parameter Naming Conventions
• 7.2.2 Handle-Body Classes in Class Hierarchies
• 7.3 Using the Handle-Body Classes
• 7.3.1 Understanding the Handle-Body Idiom
• 7.3.2 Implementing Your Own Handles and Bodies
• 7.4 Using the RWTSingleton Class
• 7.5 Using the Smart Pointer Classes
• 7.5.1 Using RWTOnlyPointer
• 7.5.2 Using RWTCountedPointer
• 7.5.3 Using RWTCountingPointer
• 7.6 Smart Pointer Class Architecture

Chapter 8: The Functor Package

• 8.1 Introducing the Functor Package
• 8.1.1 Functor Subpackages
• 8.1.2 Interpackage Dependencies
• 8.1.3 Including the Functor Header Files
• 8.1.4 What Are They For?
• 8.1.5 How Do They Work?
• 8.2 Functor Class Hierarchy
• 8.2.1 Class Naming Conventions
• 8.2.2 Template Parameter Naming Conventions
• 8.3 Using Functors
• 8.4 Constructing Functors
• 8.4.1 Analyzing Functor Requirements
• 8.4.2 Using Global Template Functions
• 8.4.3 Using Macros
• 8.4.4 Copying and Assigning Functors
• 8.4.5 Using Reference Types
• 8.5 Invoking Functors
• 8.5.1 Running Unknown Functions
• 8.6 The Functor List Subpackage
• 8.6.1 How Do They Work?
• 8.6.2 Functor List Class Hierarchy
• 8.6.3 Using Functor Lists
• 8.7 The Functor Map Subpackage
• 8.7.1 How Do They Work?
• 8.7.2 Functor Map Class Hierarchy
• 8.7.3 Using Functor Maps
• 8.7.4 Querying the Map
• 8.7.5 Functor Map Example

Chapter 9: The Thread-compatible Exception Package

• 9.1 Introducing the Thread-compatible Exception Package
• 9.1.1 Interpackage Dependencies
• 9.1.2 Including the Exception Header Files
• 9.2 Exception Class Hierarchy
• 9.3 Default Exception Messages
• 9.4 Using the Thread-compatible Exception Classes
• 9.4.1 Creating Your Own Exception Classes
• 9.4.2 Creating Your Own Error Handler
• 9.4.3 Making Existing Exceptions Thread-Compatible



Part IV: Resources




Appendix A: Compatibility with Version 1.4

• A.1 Overview
• A.2 Header File Changes
• A.3 Class Name Changes
• A.4 Global Function Changes
• A.5 Macro Name Changes
• A.6 Enumerated Constant Name Changes
• A.7 Notice of Break in Source Compatibility
• A.7.1 Automatic Servicing of Cancellation Requests
• A.7.2 RWSynchObject::enableCancellation(void)
• A.7.3 RWCancellationState: Behind the Scenes

Appendix B: Acknowledgments

• B.1 People
• B.2 Citations

Appendix C: Bibliography

• C.1 Introduction
• C.2 The C++ Language
• C.2.1 Books
• C.2.2 Magazines and Articles
• C.3 Object-Oriented Design
• C.3.1 Books
• C.3.2 Magazines and Articles
• C.3.3 Web Sites
• C.4 Multithreading and Concurrency
• C.4.1 Books
• C.4.2 Web Sites
• C.5 General
• C.5.1 Books

Appendix D: Change Log

• D.1 Purpose
• D.2 Changes from 1.4 to 2.0

Topic Index