TThread Class

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Unit[]

Classes Unit

Hierarchy[]

System.TObject

Description[]

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Technical Comments[]

(Known issues / Documentation clarifications / Things to be aware of)

Synchronize method[]

The TThread.Synchronize method is available in three overloaded versions (Delphi 2007):

 private
   class procedure Synchronize(ASyncRec: PSynchronizeRecord; QueueEvent: Boolean = False); overload;
 protected
   procedure Synchronize(AMethod: TThreadMethod); overload;
 public
   class procedure Synchronize(AThread: TThread; AMethod: TThreadMethod); overload;

The first version is private and therefore only used internally.
The second version is meant to be called from within the thread object itself.
The third is a class method to be called from outside and therefore needs the thread object as the first parameter. This parameter can be nil, though.

There is also a StaticSynchronize method, that just calls the third version and has the same parameters.

The method is used to execute a method in the context of the application's main thread, e.g. to access the (non-threadsafe) VCL. For this it uses a rather complicated approach that on the other hand seems to be faster and more reliable than most other solutions I have seen (in particular it is faster than using PostMessage). The implementation of TThread.Synchronize has changed several times over the years.

To avoid a deadlock, you must make sure that your main thread is able to execute its message loop when Synchronize is being called. If that's not possible, call the procedure CheckSynchronize like this:

 // Called in the main thread, it is assumed that the
 // Thread sets SomeThread to nil when it terminates.
 SomeThread.Terminate;
 while Assigned(SomeThread) do
   CheckSynchronize;

(Alternatively you can call SomeThread.WaitFor, the above is just an example.)

Examples[]

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User Comments/Tips[]

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