Re: [eclipse-incubator-e4-dev] SWT thread in managed runtimes

[Thomas Watson <tjwatson@xxxxxxxxxx>]

In Equinox (and RCP) an application is defined by an org.eclipse.core.runtime.applications extension. The Equinox application container is responsible for allocating a thread for the application that is being launched. Currently the applications extension point defines two application thread types which applications can require: "main" and "any". The "main" thread type is intended for the UI applications that must use the first thread on some platforms. I think the term "main" thread is to specific and limiting though. Perhaps a new thread type should be defined called "ui.thread" to give more freedom on platforms that do not require UI threads to use the first thread.

For the mac we can have the ui.thread type continue to run the application on the first thread. For other platforms that are more flexible we can allocate a separate thread for the ui.thread. If things change on the mac that allow the SWT event thread to run on any thread then the ui.thread type can start using a separate thread on the mac.

Tom



"Gorkem Ercan" ---04/08/2008 07:32:57 AM---Hi,

From:	"Gorkem Ercan" <gercan@xxxxxxx>
To:	"E4 developer list" <eclipse-incubator-e4-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date:	04/08/2008 07:32 AM
Subject:	[eclipse-incubator-e4-dev] SWT thread in managed runtimes

---

Hi,
I heard rumors that there will be some changes in the way SWT UI
thread is run in order to make it more compatible with the web model.
Since I have not seen the discussion can anyone summarize what is
discussed (or point me to the discussion).

The reason I am interested is, I am noticing a problem with SWT UI
thread when it is used in a managed runtime container such as Midlets
or any*lets. The problem comes from the fact that some native UI
toolkits would like to use the first thread in the process to be the
UI thread (I think Mac has that limitation). The managed runtimes
usually can reserve the first thread for the UI but there is no way to
guarantee that the applications will use that thread to create the SWT
thread. So what I would like to see is a way to retrieve the preferred
thread SWT UI thread. It can be made so that any many platforms thread
is not important and it would return any thread but this would help
with those platforms with such limitations of UI threads.
--
Gorkem
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