[Lazarus] Multi-threading support in IDE

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:16:36 +0200
Jürgen Hestermann <juergen.hestermann at gmx.de> wrote:

> > BTW, when the compiler has to read and write disk files, a separate 
> > thread will not speed up much. Then the compiler thread will be
> > idle much time, waiting for disk I/O, and the main thread will be
> > idle, waiting for the compiler. IMO.
> 
> That's true. The general problem is not that the IDE is not
> responsive when compiling/linking but that compiling/linking takes so
> long. If it would be as fast as in Delphi noone would complain.

It takes so long, because compiler and linker have to read all ppus
on every run. A persistent compiler and linker could keep some things.


> And having compiler and linker in separate (asynchronous) threads
> would be the same as starting them as a new process in asynchronous
> mode. It would open a can of worms because of synchronising problems.

They only share files. The synchronising is easy. 

The are good reasons to not put the compiler into the same process:
-a process can be aborted/killed easily
-various compiler versions
-compiler crashes do not effect the IDE
 
> I would not mind to wait until compiling has finished if it would
> only be faster.


Mattias