Thread advice

Hi,

I'm developing a Dialog based app which has a form for user input and is supposed to be always available while the program is running . At the same time I need to monitor the serial port and all the info that gets in being processed (there are some calcs, checking and responses being sent out).

I was thinking about using a separated thread for this serial port processing but since I´m really new on that I´m not sure if that´s the case.

Two questions:

1) Do you advice me to keep thinking about threads?

2) In case of YES is it possible to have this separated thread sending information back so that I can show it in my dialog window?

Thanks in advance.

Ricardo

Both questions should be answered with "YES".
Put the serial stuff into a thread which reads from the serial port.
If something is received from the serial port, you could for example send it to you application with ::SendMessage. (Other solutions are also possible).
Writing should also be done from the serial thread - don't try to do it from your dialog!!
Always keep in mind that you now have concurrency. So all your serial thread functions should be packed into a critical section, so that your dialog does not do nasty things while processing data.
The other way around is not that critical if you follow my recommendation with ::SendMessage.
Summary: Serial Thread waits for Serial Events and a User Event.
Dialog sets User Event thus awakening the Serial Thread if something needs to be written by I/O.
If something is read from I/O the corrsponding driver wakes up the thread itself and the thread then sends the data when complete to your dialog.

Thanks alot ReorX. That´s exactly what I had on mind (allthough I´ll have do some research from now on to implement it...no problem!!!).

Anymore tips from experts will be very welcomed.

Ricardo