Windows Form Show vs ShowDialog - c++

Question

I have a small application that I am trying to create for windows. I am running into an issue with mixing a background thread designed to process some data. This background engine someone needs to both update the application gui (A windows Form) and get information from it.
Here is the basic application main.
int main() {
Engine engine;
Gui g;
engine.run(); // creates a new thread for engine logic
g.ShowDialog();
bool running = false;
while(1)
{
// Update gui with information from the engine
g.update(engine.GetState());
// transition to running
if(g.isRunning() && !running)
{
engine.play();
running = true;
}
// transition to stopped
else if(!g.isRunning() && running)
{
engine.stop();
running = false;
}
}
}
My main problem comes from the fact that Gui class is managed. See Class declaration below.
public ref class Gui : public System::Windows::Forms::Form
I am not really able to mix these two things, at first I had wanted to just throw the Engine into the Gui but that doesn't work since it is unmanaged.
You will note that the problem here is calling ShowDialog() as this makes the dialog modal and no code afterwards is executed. However, if I use Show() ... the Gui simply doesn't update or process any inputs.
SOLUTION:
I created a background worker in the Gui class so the engine is contained within the Gui but is ran on another thread.
void InitializeBackgoundWorker()
{
this->backgroundWorker1 = gcnew System::ComponentModel::BackgroundWorker;
backgroundWorker1->DoWork += gcnew DoWorkEventHandler( this, &Gui::backgroundWorker1_DoWork );
backgroundWorker1->RunWorkerAsync( );
}
delegate void UpdateCallback(int hp, int maxhp);
void UpdateGui(int hp, int maxhp)
{
this->playerHealthBar->Value = ((float)(hp)/(float)(maxhp) * 100.0f);
};
void backgroundWorker1_DoWork( Object^ sender, DoWorkEventArgs^ e )
{
aBotEngine engine;
while(true)
{
engine.runnable(NULL);
array<Object^>^args = gcnew array<Object^>(2);
args[0] = engine.getPlayerHp();
args[1] = engine.getPlayerMaxHp();
this->playerHealthBar->Invoke(gcnew UpdateCallback(this, &Gui::UpdateGui), args);
}
};

Answer 1

As far as I can tell this is the proper way to have background thread that updates your windows form. I'm sure its not the only way.
void InitializeBackgoundWorker()
{
this->backgroundWorker1 = gcnew System::ComponentModel::BackgroundWorker;
backgroundWorker1->DoWork += gcnew DoWorkEventHandler( this, &Gui::backgroundWorker1_DoWork );
backgroundWorker1->RunWorkerAsync( );
}
delegate void UpdateCallback(int hp, int maxhp);
void UpdateGui(int hp, int maxhp)
{
this->playerHealthBar->Value = ((float)(hp)/(float)(maxhp) * 100.0f);
};
void backgroundWorker1_DoWork( Object^ sender, DoWorkEventArgs^ e )
{
aBotEngine engine;
while(true)
{
engine.runnable(NULL);
array<Object^>^args = gcnew array<Object^>(2);
args[0] = engine.getPlayerHp();
args[1] = engine.getPlayerMaxHp();
this->playerHealthBar->Invoke(gcnew UpdateCallback(this, &Gui::UpdateGui), args);
}
};