define _HPUX_SOURCE under HP-UX, otherwise many things are not defined in standard...

[wxWidgets.git] / docs / latex / wx / thread.tex

diff --git a/docs/latex/wx/thread.tex b/docs/latex/wx/thread.tex
index cd4a11cb241bd568d9585a6d1046f3631079c8c2..537f574b27d1946760e0b835c9baf3e7ea58046f 100644 (file)
--- a/docs/latex/wx/thread.tex
+++ b/docs/latex/wx/thread.tex
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ A thread is basically a path of execution through a program. Threads are
 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.
 
@@ -26,7 +26,9 @@ heap because the thread will call {\tt delete this;} upon termination. Joinable
 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}
 
@@ -60,7 +62,7 @@ The possible values for {\it kind} parameters are:
 \end{twocollist}
 
 
-\membersection{wxThread::\destruct{wxThread}}
+\membersection{wxThread::\destruct{wxThread}}\label{wxthreaddtor}
 
 \func{}{\destruct{wxThread}}{\void}
 
@@ -82,7 +84,22 @@ stack.
 Creates a new thread. The thread object is created in the suspended state, and you
 should call \helpref{Run}{wxthreadrun} to start running it.  You may optionally
 specify the stack size to be allocated to it (Ignored on platforms that don't
-support setting it explicitly, eg. Unix).
+support setting it explicitly, eg. Unix system without
+\texttt{pthread\_attr\_setstacksize}). If you do not specify the stack size,
+the system's default value is used.
+
+{\bf Warning:} It is a good idea to explicitly specify a value as systems'
+default values vary from just a couple of KB on some systems (BSD and
+OS/2 systems) to one or several MB (Windows, Solaris, Linux). So, if you
+have a thread that requires more than just a few KB of memory, you will
+have mysterious problems on some platforms but not on the common ones. On the
+other hand, just indicating a large stack size by default will give you
+performance issues on those systems with small default stack since those
+typically use fully committed memory for the stack. On the contrary, if
+use a lot of threads (say several hundred), virtual adress space can get tight
+unless you explicitly specify a smaller amount of thread stack space for each
+thread.
+
 
 \wxheading{Return value}
 
@@ -201,11 +218,10 @@ The following priorities are defined:
 
 Returns \true if the thread is alive (i.e. started and not terminating).
 
-Note that this function can only be saely used with joinable threads, not
+Note that this function can only safely be used with joinable threads, not
 detached ones as the latter delete themselves and so when the real thread is
-not alive any longer it is not possible to call this function neither because
-the wxThread object doesn't exist any more as well.
-
+no longer alive, it is not possible to call this function because
+the wxThread object no longer exists.
 
 \membersection{wxThread::IsDetached}\label{wxthreadisdetached}