在单独的线程中调用 MFC UI 类上的方法

Question

I have two threads in my MFC application. One of them handles all Wnd stuff and the other some file management. Is it generally a good idea to call some methods on UI classes from other threads? Like for example to update some values the UI fields are showing to user. Or it is a bad practice and I have to send messages to the windows classes? If we try to use locks in UI threads, GUI will freeze frequently which is not really acceptable unless it is for a very trivial job. What is the best practice here? Should we solely use message passing mechanisms when dealing with UI?

There are also some methods on UI which don't involve data or variables. For example telling a window to maximize. Is it bad to call a public method in UI class in this case?

[EDIT] I forgot to tell about my problem with sending messages. Your parameters a always two pointers and not easily customizable.

Answer 1

Primarily, UI is supposed too be light and responsive. To accomplish that, all the heavy duty works should be handled by a separate thread, wherein it can communicate with the main mfc UI thread using SendMessage() .

Commands such as maximizing windows have fairly small overhead and can be accomplished in the UI thread itself. To simulate a long process, the UI can use an animated progress bar, for instance.

Decoupling UI from the program engine also will make your code more modular, reusable and the intent clearer.