🚀 go-pugleaf

"Curt" <noemailaddress> wrote in message
news:43091119$1@newsgroups.borland.com...

> In Form1->OnCreate()

Do not use the OnCreate event in C++.  It is a Delphi remnant that produces
illegal behavior in C++ because it can be triggered before the constructor.

> I instantiate the TIdThread by calling TIdThread * ClientThread = new
TIdThread();

That will not work.  Like TThread, TIdThread is a base class that you need
to derive a new class from in order to write the code that the thread will
actually run.  TIdThread by itself does not do anything.  In fact, TIdThread
is an abstract class, so you cannot instantiate it directly anyway.

> Then, within ClientThread, how should I use BeforeExecute, BeforeRun,
> AfterRun, AfterExecute ?  Where should I put the Connect() and
> Disconnect()

Use BeforeRun() to Connect() and AfterRun() to Disconnect().  Use Run() to
read a packet of data.

> where should I check to make sure that the connection has not been broken?

Put an try..catch block inside of Run().  If the connection is broken,
reading from the client socket will thrown an exception.  As long as an
exception does not escape from Run(), the thread will continue running.

> how do I break out of the Run() loop without terminating the thread ?

The only way is to call the thread's Stop() method.  There is a StopMode
property that tells the thread what to do when stopped.  If set to
smTerminate, the thread terminates itself.  If set to smSuspend, the thread
suspends itself.

In the latter case, you would have to Start() the thread again at a later
time from another thread, including when shutting the thread down for good.
On the other hand, if you don't want the thread to suspend itself, just to
go back to BeforeRun() and start over, then you can override the DoStopped()
method (or use the OnStopped event) to call the thread's Start() method.
Then the thread will not suspend itself at all.

> I also thought of connecting in BeforeRun and then spawning an
> additional thread in Run()

You do not need another thread.  You are already in a thread.

> which would do the work of reading the Connection and then terminate
> itself when a disconnect takes place returning control to the original
thread
> which would reestablish the connection.

You do not need to do that.


Gambit