How i can implement a BackgroundWorker in C++ STL - c++

Question

Hello i'm newbie in C++ specially on STL,
I need to create a function with an infinite loop to calculate and process big data (such as Genetic Algorithm), but i also need keep Ui responsive and update it within (after each round) that infinite loop and start/stop operation manually.
something like this:
bool working = false;
void do_process()
{
while(working)
{
// do some stuff
}
}
void btnStart()
{
working = true;
do_process();
}
void btnEnd()
{
working = false;
}
would you please guide me to a proper solution without any 3rdparty lib, thanks.
and apologies for terrible English.

Answer 1

The code below should get you started. But be careful, implementing a multi-threading application is generally a hard problem also for experienced users. Lot of knowledge is required about memory access synchronization and deadlock analysis. Consider the example below is really essential. For instance, in btnStart and btnStop you should check if a thread is already running. Checking the global bool working may require synchronization. Similarly, checking for null pointer may require synchronization. Bottom line, it is way more complicate than it may seem.
#include <iostream>
#include <utility>
#include <thread>
#include <chrono>
#include <memory>
bool working = false;
std::unique_ptr<std::thread> t;
void do_process()
{
while(working)
{
std::cout << "Hi. I am a secondary thread and I am running.\n";
std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(100));
}
}
void btnStart()
{
working = true;
t.reset(new std::thread(do_process)); // start the thread
}
void btnEnd()
{
working = false; // inform the thread of termination
t->join(); // wait for thread termination
t.reset(NULL);
}
int main()
{
std::cout << "Hi, I am the main thread.\n";
std::cout << "I'll now launch another thread and sleep for a while\n";
btnStart();
std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(2000));
btnEnd();
std::cout << "What happened while I was slepping?\n";
return 0;
}

Answer 2

I am fairly new also to c++ but i have something that might help.
when i want to run something like an update to my code or to run something external without cramming my original project with code, i like to use ShellExecute to run another c++ program or external program. To use ShellExecute you need #include<windows.h>
For example if i want to update my program, i use #include<fstream>, #include<windows.h>, and #include<string> to check for a value in a file called 'updatereq.txt' (i make it my self). And in my program i run ifstream to check in the file if there is a '1'. If the if statement detects '1' it does this:
void Update(string filename)
{
ShellExecute(NULL,"open",filename.c_str(),NULL,NULL,SW_SHOWNORMAL)
}
This will run with:
HWND set as NULL, Operation set as: "open", File set as string:filenameconstant, Parameters set as NULL, Directory set as NULL(will run in the Directory of originally launching, usually at the main file), and Mode set as SW_SHOWNORMAL which will run it infront of you normally. This is also SW_SHOWMINIMIZED and SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED
Hope this helps!
PS: Remember to mention the file / program name that you are going to run when calling this function