[Issue 1085] Need to add ability to detach threads.

[Sean Kelly]

d-bugmail at puremagic.com wrote:
> 
> ------- Comment #3 from mattbd at walkingdog.net  2007-03-28 23:20 -------
> I think that assuming that a thread should detach just because no thread called
> wait() before the thread exits is incorrect. It is certainly within the posix
> programming model to use wait to collect status of previously exited threads
> and that should probably be exposed. I think either an explicit detach()
> method

This would be reasonable for Posix, but now Win32.  On Posix, the thread 
handle isn't needed for any of the currently exposed functionality 
(though it may be for future functionality, such as modifying thread 
priorities).  On Win32 however, the thread handle is required for pretty 
much everything, including suspending the thread for garbage collection. 
  So the only recourse would be to make detach() a no-op on Win32, and 
to consider the use of some functions an error after detach() is called 
on Posix.

 > or a separate subclass for detached threads would be better than the
> Tango model.

The user is free to subclass Thread and do whatever he wants, subject to 
the aforementioned restrictions.  But design issues at this level are 
better discussed elsewhere.