summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/doc/Async.3
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/Async.3')
-rw-r--r--doc/Async.334
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 18 deletions
diff --git a/doc/Async.3 b/doc/Async.3
index 3c40c44..558b511 100644
--- a/doc/Async.3
+++ b/doc/Async.3
@@ -5,10 +5,8 @@
'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
'\"
-'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: Async.3,v 1.6 2004/10/07 14:44:31 dkf Exp $
-'\"
-.so man.macros
.TH Tcl_AsyncCreate 3 7.0 Tcl "Tcl Library Procedures"
+.so man.macros
.BS
.SH NAME
Tcl_AsyncCreate, Tcl_AsyncMark, Tcl_AsyncInvoke, Tcl_AsyncDelete, Tcl_AsyncReady \- handle asynchronous events
@@ -50,9 +48,9 @@ or 0 if \fIinterp\fR is NULL.
These procedures provide a safe mechanism for dealing with
asynchronous events such as signals.
If an event such as a signal occurs while a Tcl script is being
-evaluated then it isn't safe to take any substantive action to
+evaluated then it is not safe to take any substantive action to
process the event.
-For example, it isn't safe to evaluate a Tcl script since the
+For example, it is not safe to evaluate a Tcl script since the
interpreter may already be in the middle of evaluating a script;
it may not even be safe to allocate memory, since a memory
allocation could have been in progress when the event occurred.
@@ -62,11 +60,11 @@ to a clean state, such as after the current Tcl command completes.
.PP
\fBTcl_AsyncCreate\fR, \fBTcl_AsyncDelete\fR, and \fBTcl_AsyncReady\fR
are thread sensitive. They access and/or set a thread-specific data
-structure in the event of an --enable-thread built core. The token
-created by Tcl_AsyncCreate contains the needed thread information it
-was called from so that calling Tcl_AsyncMark(token) will only yield
-the origin thread into the AsyncProc.
-.PP
+structure in the event of a core built with \fI\-\-enable\-threads\fR. The token
+created by \fBTcl_AsyncCreate\fR contains the needed thread information it
+was called from so that calling \fBTcl_AsyncMark\fR(\fItoken\fR) will only yield
+the origin thread into the asynchronous handler.
+.PP
\fBTcl_AsyncCreate\fR creates an asynchronous handler and returns
a token for it.
The asynchronous handler must be created before
@@ -83,12 +81,14 @@ the world is in a safe state, and \fIproc\fR can then carry out
the actions associated with the asynchronous event.
\fIProc\fR should have arguments and result that match the
type \fBTcl_AsyncProc\fR:
+.PP
.CS
-typedef int Tcl_AsyncProc(
+typedef int \fBTcl_AsyncProc\fR(
ClientData \fIclientData\fR,
Tcl_Interp *\fIinterp\fR,
int \fIcode\fR);
.CE
+.PP
The \fIclientData\fR will be the same as the \fIclientData\fR
argument passed to \fBTcl_AsyncCreate\fR when the handler was
created.
@@ -142,7 +142,6 @@ If new handlers become ready while handlers are executing,
\fBTcl_AsyncInvoke\fR will invoke them all; at each point it
invokes the highest-priority (oldest) ready handler, repeating
this over and over until there are no longer any ready handlers.
-
.SH WARNING
.PP
It is almost always a bad idea for an asynchronous event
@@ -152,12 +151,11 @@ This sort of behavior can disrupt the execution of scripts in
subtle ways and result in bugs that are extremely difficult
to track down.
If an asynchronous event handler needs to evaluate Tcl scripts
-then it should first save the interpreter's result plus the values
-of the variables \fBerrorInfo\fR and \fBerrorCode\fR (this can
-be done, for example, by storing them in dynamic strings).
+then it should first save the interpreter's state by calling
+\fBTcl_SaveInterpState\fR, passing in the \fIcode\fR argument.
When the asynchronous handler is finished it should restore
-the interpreter's result, \fBerrorInfo\fR, and \fBerrorCode\fR,
-and return the \fIcode\fR argument.
+the interpreter's state by calling \fBTcl_RestoreInterpState\fR,
+and then returning the \fIcode\fR argument.
.SH KEYWORDS
-asynchronous event, handler, signal
+asynchronous event, handler, signal, Tcl_SaveInterpState, thread