An idea on multithreading implementation

Bob Sneidar bobs at twft.com
Mon Jan 31 12:56:02 EST 2011


When I started this whole thread, what I had in mind was a simple method for allowing commands and even whole stacks to run concurrently with other stacks, while still being able to communicate with each other through the engine. All the stuff about enabling and disabling communications between things is to me irrelevant. Just compile 2 apps and they will not be able to talk natively to each other. Done deal. 

Some tell me that multithreading is not that simple. Well nothing under the hood of any app is simple, and triply so for a development environment. My idea was for the engine to handle communications between all of it's objects the way it does now, but have concurrent processes IF YOU WANTED. 

By default, I envision LiveCode working just the way it does now, with the OPTION to say something like: 

open stack "Accounts Receivable" with new thread
or 
do ReportGen with new thread

I could then check in on the state of a global from time to time in my Progress Bar modal stack or switch back to my "Order Entry" stack and continue entering my customer's order while the report generator was running. See? I personally do not have any interest whatsoever managing all the threading myself. I use LiveCode so I do not HAVE to know or understand that sort of thing. I am only one person. One of the things that LiveCode allows us to do, which is not talked about much, is to produce really nice and functional applications with incredibly minimal resources (like only one developer!)

Bob


On Jan 31, 2011, at 9:35 AM, form wrote:

> Even discounting games, I'd love to be able to designate a substack to being
> "threaded", disabling its access to objects in other stacks, and limiting
> communication to event/message passing.
> 
> It would be very much like using the open process command with a Windows
> command line program. (WHY doesn't it work with Mac command line
> programs?!?!)
> 
> I use open process is a stack to start a makefile and monitor its output
> while keeping the interface perfectly responsive. I do the same on a mac
> using a shell command outputting to a text file that I sample the tail from
> in another shell command. Hackier, but it gets the basic job done.
> 
> But if I have LiveCode that I want to start and monitor, I'm out of luck.
> (Without getting REALLY hacky, that is.)
> 
> ~ Chris Innanen
> ~ Nonsanity
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 11:57 AM, Bob Sneidar <bobs at twft.com> wrote:
> 
>> Well now that there is Livecode for iApps, a lot of people may want it, but
>> I for one am never going to develop a game, even a simple one.
>> 
>> Bob
>> 
>> 
>> On Jan 29, 2011, at 5:06 PM, Alejandro Tejada wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi All,
>>> 
>>> It's nice to read discussions about features that
>>> enhance this platform, but now I have one doubt:
>>> 
>>> How many developers (who use Livecode) want
>>> to see this platform converted in a game engine?
>>> 
>>> Notice that the only DLL in my wish list for this
>>> platform is a SWF player, that allows to run
>>> movies inside a stack, just like the Quicktime
>>> externals. I do not want to see a Timeline
>>> in this platform...
>>> 
>>> At least in my mind, you could not build (easily)
>>> the kind of applications created with Livecode
>>> if it were a game engine. Am I wrong?
>>> 
>>> Or There are no boundaries anymore among
>>> Software Development tools?
>>> 
>>> Al
>>> 
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