[wxWidgets.git] / docs / doxygen / groups / funcmacro_atomic.h

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Name:        funcmacro_atomic.h
// Purpose:     Atomic Operation function and macro group docs
// Author:      wxWidgets team
// RCS-ID:      $Id: funcmacro_gdi.h 52454 2008-03-12 19:08:48Z BP $
// Licence:     wxWindows license
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

/**

@defgroup group_funcmacro_atomic Atomic Operations
@ingroup group_funcmacro

When using multi-threaded applications, it is often required to access or
modify memory which is shared between threads. Atomic integer and pointer
operations are an efficient way to handle this issue (another, less efficient,
way is to use a wxMutex or wxCriticalSection). A native implementation exists
for Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X; for others, a wxCriticalSection is
used to protect the data.

One particular application is reference counting (used by so-called
@ref group_class_smartpointers "smart pointers").

You should define your variable with the type wxAtomicInt in order to apply
atomic operations to it.

*/
Commit	Line	Data
dae2800a BP	1	/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	2	// Name: funcmacro_atomic.h
	3	// Purpose: Atomic Operation function and macro group docs
	4	// Author: wxWidgets team
	5	// RCS-ID: $Id: funcmacro_gdi.h 52454 2008-03-12 19:08:48Z BP $
	6	// Licence: wxWindows license
	7	/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	8
	9	/**
	10
	11	@defgroup group_funcmacro_atomic Atomic Operations
	12	@ingroup group_funcmacro
	13
	14	When using multi-threaded applications, it is often required to access or
	15	modify memory which is shared between threads. Atomic integer and pointer
	16	operations are an efficient way to handle this issue (another, less efficient,
1ba0de2e BP	17	way is to use a wxMutex or wxCriticalSection). A native implementation exists
	18	for Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X; for others, a wxCriticalSection is
	19	used to protect the data.
dae2800a	20
1ba0de2e BP	21	One particular application is reference counting (used by so-called
1ba0de2e BP	22	@ref group_class_smartpointers "smart pointers").
dae2800a BP	23
	24	You should define your variable with the type wxAtomicInt in order to apply
	25	atomic operations to it.
	26
dae2800a BP	27	*/
dae2800a BP	28