[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#7229) Re: Re: Freeciv commit: ali: Add macro is_city_hilited().

["Arnstein Lindgard" <a-l@xxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=7229 >

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 06:54:43 -0800 Jason Short wrote:

> Using a GDK timer doesn't add any additional threads.  Nor will it
> interrupt existing code with the timer.
> 
> GTK/GDK may use extra threads in the backend, but unless you specifically
> thread your application this won't affect the program's code.

I would believe the GTK people chose the safe way too. I've noticed
that the timers are highly irregular, which strengthens that
assumption, and which may cause problems for smooth animation. Maybe
that's why the client's timeout clock is often wrong too.

It would probably be useful to have a lower level timer for
animation. Then GTK would not save us, ie the CPU would be
interrupted without your code knowing about it. Then I would use
repeat functions calls because it would be neccessary.

Interrupts is a hardware limited resource (an "IBM PC" feature from
decades back). Timers, mutexes, threads, are just software
abstractions that you may use to handle things.


Arnstein