sometimes called {\it light-weight processes}, but the fundamental difference
between threads and processes is that memory spaces of different processes are
separated while all threads share the same address space. While it makes it
-much easier to share common data between several threads, it also makes much
+much easier to share common data between several threads, it also makes it much
easier to shoot oneself in the foot, so careful use of synchronization objects
such as \helpref{mutexes}{wxmutex} and/or \helpref{critical sections}{wxcriticalsection} is recommended.
-There are two types of threads in wxWindows: {\it detached} and {\it joinable}
+There are two types of threads in wxWidgets: {\it detached} and {\it joinable}
ones, just as in the POSIX thread API (but unlike Win32 threads where all threads
are joinable). The difference between the two is that only joinable threads
can return a return code -- this is returned by the Wait() function. Detached
threads may be created on the stack although more usually they will be created
on the heap as well. Don't create global thread objects because they allocate
memory in their constructor, which will cause problems for the memory checking
-system.
+system. Finally, another consequence of the handling of the above is that you
+should never delete a detached thread yourself, as this will be done by the
+thread itself when it terminates.
\wxheading{Derived from}
\end{twocollist}
-\membersection{wxThread::\destruct{wxThread}}
+\membersection{wxThread::\destruct{wxThread}}\label{wxthreaddtor}
\func{}{\destruct{wxThread}}{\void}
Calling \helpref{Delete}{wxthreaddelete} is a graceful way to terminate the
thread. It asks the thread to terminate and, if the thread code is well
-written, the thread will terminate after the next call to
+written, the thread will terminate after the next call to
\helpref{TestDestroy}{wxthreadtestdestroy} which should happen quite soon.
However, if the thread doesn't call \helpref{TestDestroy}{wxthreadtestdestroy}
The returned value is the thread exit code which is only useful for
joinable threads and is the value returned by \helpref{Wait}{wxthreadwait}.
-This function is called by wxWindows itself and should never be called
+This function is called by wxWidgets itself and should never be called
directly.
number of threads that the system tries to schedule to run in parallel.
The value of $0$ for {\it level} may be used to set the default one.
-Returns true on success or false otherwise (for example, if this function is
+Returns \true on success or false otherwise (for example, if this function is
not implemented for this platform -- currently everything except Solaris).
\membersection{wxThread::TestDestroy}\label{wxthreadtestdestroy}
-\func{bool}{TestDestroy}{\void}
+\func{virtual bool}{TestDestroy}{\void}
This function should be called periodically by the thread to ensure that calls
to \helpref{Pause}{wxthreadpause} and \helpref{Delete}{wxthreaddelete} will
-work. If it returns true, the thread should exit as soon as possible.
+work. If it returns \true, the thread should exit as soon as possible.
+
+Notice that under some platforms (POSIX), implementation of
+\helpref{Pause}{wxthreadpause} also relies on this function being called, so
+not calling it would prevent both stopping and suspending thread from working.
\membersection{wxThread::This}\label{wxthreadthis}