dvfs api and toolkits

[Owen Taylor]

On Sun, 2005-04-03 at 21:34 -0400, Avery Pennarun wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 03, 2005 at 09:20:41PM -0400, Owen Taylor wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 2005-04-03 at 18:37 -0400, Sean Middleditch wrote:
> > 
> > > It is entirely possible to build a synchronous wrapper around an
> > > asynchronous API, but not the other way around.  The method to do so is
> > > basically along the lines of: begin operation, set callback in toolkit
> > > event loop, run toolkit loop, check if operation is complete, repeat
> > > loop if not complete.  The most important bit here is the toolkit part -
> > > doing a synchronous API is dependent on the toolkit (or, more
> > > accurately, the event loop) of the application.
> > 
> > A synchronous API *must not* recurse the main loop.
> 
> I'm pretty sure that's not true of all toolkits.  In some, for example,
> dialog boxes are implemented by explicitly calling the event loop after
> blocking certain kinds of events.

The point is not that the main loop cannot be recursed, but that
recursing the main loop when the app isn't expecting it will result
in hard-to-debug, obscure, bugs. A synchronous API must block with
no side effects until the call completes.

> Anyway, I think Sean's point is that the synchronous wrapper has to be
> toolkit specific, while the async one doesn't particularly.  So if your
> favourite toolkit (gtk, I assume :)) can't handle recursive calls to the
> mainloop, just implement the synchronous wrapper using some appropriate
> technique.

GTK+ handles recursive main loop calls just fine. It's not a toolkit
issue.

If there is a synchronous API at all, it should be designed for non-GUI
apps and threaded apps. A single threaded GUI app should be using only
asynchronous APIs. (*)

Regards,
						Owen

(*) One thing that needs to be thought through carefully is what happens
    with the synchronous API if an authentication dialog needs to be
    displayed. This is a big problem with gnome-vfs. 

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