Well gang, the Thread Manager is now released as version 1.2. Licensing information for the Thread Manager 1.2 is included with this second release with the intent to make it as easy and as possible for developers to create and ship multithreaded applications.
Some important programming issues to remember when using the Thread Manager:
1) The Resource Manager fix supports all machines except for the Mac Plus. On a Mac Plus only, the main thread should be the only thread which uses the Resource Manager. Specifically, calls to UpdateResFile or CloseResFile should only be made by the main application thread on a Mac Plus. All other Macintoshes support Resource Manager calls from any cooperative thread.
2) It is considered a programming error to allocate memory, or cause memory to be allocated, during preemptive execution time or from any thread other than the main application thread before the MaxApplZone routine has been called. See Inside Macintosh Memory for information on using memory and expanding the application heap.
3) One compatibility issue came up having to do with a utility library named GestaltValue developed by DTS. This utility makes using custom gestalt selectors easy and will someday be part of the system. Now for the problem: If the GestaltValueDispatch trap exists, the utility library will call through to it - unfortunately, the trap it checks for is ThreadDispatch rather than GestaltValueDispatch. Needless to say, a system runtime error occurs and your machine stops (read: you crash). The latest version of the GestaltValue utility has been updated to correct the problem.
If you have any bug reports or comments, please don’t hesitate to link or write. You can contact us through the following:
AppleLink: ERIC3
or place your comments in the Developer Talk bulletin boards on AppleLink, the internet, Compuserve, AOL, or some other public discussion area.
