C++ Multithreading in Boost

[Daniel Duffy]

Comment out EVERWHERE you have IntToString.
Then?

 

[Daniel Duffy]

template<typename T>
std::string toString(const T& value)
{
    std::ostringstream oss;
    oss << value;
    return oss.str();
}

std::string IntToString (const int& i)
{
return toString<int>(i);
}

 

[TkOp]

template<typename T>
std::string toString(const T& value)
{
    std::ostringstream oss;
    oss << value;
    return oss.str();
}

std::string IntToString (const int& i)
{
return toString<int>(i);
}

.It does work. Thanks a lot !
I have to bother you with this problem.

 

[Ian Kaplan]

Hi Daniel,

This is a great reference. It's clearly written and well explained. And the task is explaining the boost libraries.

In my opinion, however, the boost thread library is a horror. Doing simple things, like creating a threat class, is complex. In fact, almost everything that one might want to do is complex in the Boost thread library.

Instead of the Boost thread library, I highly recommend the Qt thread classes from the Qt Core. Most people think of Qt as a graphic library, which it is. But the Qt Core classes are very nice. And the Qt thread library is much like Java threading: easy to use and easy to understand (at least compared to the Boost thread library).

Best,

Ian

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Hi Ian,
Boost thread (and C++ 11 concurrency) are very flexible but low-level indeed. We coded the producer-consumer a few years ago because they were no libraries for them and as a good test case.

QT is very good but I have not worked with it.

These days task libraries such as TBB, PPL and PPL hide low-level details and allow developers to think in parallel design patterns.

The book by Mattson et al 2005 gives a global overview of these patterns.

regards

Daniel

 

[Ian Kaplan]

Thanks for the post, Daniel. As always you're very informative. I didn't know about the Intel Threading Building Block library. It looks interesting. I develop on Linux unless I have a compelling reason to use Windows, so PPL is not an option for me.

After I wrote that post about Qt I tried to get Qt to work on Linux (Fedora 14). I can't get the libraries right and I have found no documentation on what libraries I need to link with (other than Qt5Core). Its possible it's not compatible with the version of Linux/gcc I have, but I can't tell. So the TBB library looks like a good alternative now that I've reached a road block with Qt. Which is too bad. I've used Qt on Windows and I really like the class library.

One problem with Qt is that it uses its own allocation model, so you have to call a Qt initializer in main(). I'm fine using the STL or Boost containers. I just want object based threading. So I'd like something lighter weight than Qt and TBB looks like it might be what I'm looking for. It also looks like it supports loop level parallelism, which is not what I need right now. But I've used this in R, so I might want it in the future.

Best,
Ian

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Ian,
I vaguely remember someone saying that user code in PPL compiles under TBB (albeit you need Intel compiler).

regards

Daniel
//
Discussion (@renorm) on TBB here

http://www.wilmott.com/messageview.cfm?catid=10&threadid=81692&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

 

[ExSan]

I have just got interested in this topic. I am using MS Express 2013
could some one post the code for Fibonacci ?

1. using threads ...// no boost please
2. using cores ...// #pragma

I would like to see the difference.

So far what I have learned is not so clear to me. Eager to learn. Thnkx.

 

[pingu]

2. using cores ...// #pragma

do you mean OpenMP?

 

[ExSan]

do you mean OpenMP?

yes

 

[Daniel Duffy]

So other related code examples in Boost

Datasim Financial Forums • View topic - The Boost Library; Overview, Code, Applications

 

[CaTx]

I sign up for an account here just to thank you for this excellent article, Mr. Duffy.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

I sign up for an account here just to thank you for this excellent article, Mr. Duffy.

Thanks!

@APalley
@GONG CHEN

 

[CaTx]

Oh well, I figured it out.

 

[dan_ms]

This explanation was amazing and helped me very much! thanks!!

 

[Daniel Duffy]

This explanation was amazing and helped me very much! thanks!!

Thank you.
I wrote that article 10 years ago. The nice thing now is that threads (and tasks!) are supported in C++11 and porting code is more or less changing namespace boost to std.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

These days C++ has support for parallel processing and multithreading.

Also, PPL has ready-to-use parallel design patterns.

Parallel Patterns Library - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Parallel Patterns Library (PPL)

Learn more about: Parallel Patterns Library (PPL)

docs.microsoft.com

PPL is similar to TBB

Threading Building Blocks - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org