Thread overview
Passing a class instance to a thread via spawn()
Jul 18, 2013
Ali Çehreli
July 18, 2013
Hello all,

I have a data structure which is a final class.  Once created, the contents of the class will not be mutated (only its const methods will be called).

Is there any way to pass this to a thread via spawn() or via message-passing? I've seen instructions to use shared() but if I try and declare the class this way I get errors such as "non-shared method is not callable using a shared object" and "non-shared const method is not callable using a shared object".

The ideal would be to mark this object, once created, as immutable -- but trusty methods like assumeUnique() don't work for classes!

Can anyone advise?

Thanks & best wishes,

     -- Joe
July 18, 2013
On 07/18/2013 04:23 PM, Joseph Rushton Wakeling wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I have a data structure which is a final class.  Once created, the contents of
> the class will not be mutated (only its const methods will be called).
>
> Is there any way to pass this to a thread via spawn() or via message-passing?
> I've seen instructions to use shared() but if I try and declare the class this
> way I get errors such as "non-shared method is not callable using a shared
> object" and "non-shared const method is not callable using a shared object".
>
> The ideal would be to mark this object, once created, as immutable -- but trusty
> methods like assumeUnique() don't work for classes!
>
> Can anyone advise?
>
> Thanks & best wishes,
>
>       -- Joe
>

The following seems to work but it may have more 'immutable' keywords than you need. For example, the final class F need not be 'immutable'. I think it is the objects of it that you want 'immutable'. (?)

Anyway, the following may be a start:

import std.concurrency;
import core.thread;

interface I
{
    int foo();
}

class C : I
{
    int i;

    this(int i) immutable {
        this.i = i;
    }

    override int foo() {
        return 1;
    }
}

immutable final class F : C
{
    double d;

    this(int i, double d) immutable {
        super(i);
        this.d = d;
    }

    /* 'override' keyword is required if the class is non-immutable
     * and not required otherwise. Bug? */
    int foo() {
        return 2;
    }

    int bar() const {
        return 3;
    }
}

void worker(immutable(F) f)
{
    f.bar();
}

void main()
{
    auto f = new immutable(F)(42, 1.5);

    spawn(&worker, f);

    thread_joinAll();
}

Ali

July 19, 2013
On Thursday, 18 July 2013 at 23:54:22 UTC, Ali Çehreli wrote:
> On 07/18/2013 04:23 PM, Joseph Rushton Wakeling wrote:
>
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I have a data structure which is a final class.  Once
> created, the contents of
> > the class will not be mutated (only its const methods will be
> called).
> >
> > Is there any way to pass this to a thread via spawn() or via
> message-passing?
> > I've seen instructions to use shared() but if I try and
> declare the class this
> > way I get errors such as "non-shared method is not callable
> using a shared
> > object" and "non-shared const method is not callable using a
> shared object".
> >
> > The ideal would be to mark this object, once created, as
> immutable -- but trusty
> > methods like assumeUnique() don't work for classes!
> >
> > Can anyone advise?
> >
> > Thanks & best wishes,
> >
> >       -- Joe
> >
>
> The following seems to work but it may have more 'immutable' keywords than you need. For example, the final class F need not be 'immutable'. I think it is the objects of it that you want 'immutable'. (?)
>
> Anyway, the following may be a start:
>
> import std.concurrency;
> import core.thread;
>
> interface I
> {
>     int foo();
> }
>
> class C : I
> {
>     int i;
>
>     this(int i) immutable {
>         this.i = i;
>     }
>
>     override int foo() {
>         return 1;
>     }
> }
>
> immutable final class F : C
> {
>     double d;
>
>     this(int i, double d) immutable {
>         super(i);
>         this.d = d;
>     }
>
>     /* 'override' keyword is required if the class is non-immutable
>      * and not required otherwise. Bug? */
>     int foo() {
>         return 2;
>     }
>
>     int bar() const {
>         return 3;
>     }
> }
>
> void worker(immutable(F) f)
> {
>     f.bar();
> }
>
> void main()
> {
>     auto f = new immutable(F)(42, 1.5);
>
>     spawn(&worker, f);
>
>     thread_joinAll();
> }
>
> Ali

That's a very interesting idea. Thanks so much for sharing! :-)