Topics:

Overview
Copying
Supported Platforms
Unzipping

Overview:

The vbThread library is an additional component of the Variable Block Database (VBD) and Socket (VBS) libraries. This distribution is comprised of a collection of C++ classes used to build cross-platform multi-threaded applications as part of the VBD or VBS library or independently of either library.

VB Thread Library Features:

• WIN32/POSIX Interoperability
• Object-Oriented Design
• Thread Creation/Construction
• Thread Destruction
• Cancellation
• Exit
• Join
• Suspend
• Resume
• Sleep
• Priority Functions
• Thread Specific Storage
• Thread Pooling

Synchronization Classes:

• Mutex Locks
• Conditional Variables
• Semaphore Synchronization

Several example programs with makefiles for each of the supported platform/C++ compilers are provided to test and demonstrate each component of the library.

All the documentation for the distribution is provided in an HTML format. The documentation covers the VBT C++ class library, the example programs, and the utility programs provided with this distribution.

Copying:

The VBD, VBS and VBT C++ classes are copyright (c) 1997 and 2000 by Douglas M. Gaer.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

Supported Platforms:

The vbThread C++ class library and the example programs have been compiled and tested using the following platforms:

WIN32 - Microsoft Visual C++ version 4.2 and higher

WIN32 - Borland BCC32 version 5.5

HP-UX B.10.20 A 9000/819 - HP92453-01 G.10.32.05 HP C Compiler

HP-UX B.11.00 A 9000/780 - HP92453-01 A.11.01.00 HP C Compiler

Red Hat Linux release 5.2 (Apollo) Kernel 2.0.36 on an i586 - gcc version egcs-2.90.29 980515 (egcs-1.0.3 release)

SunOS 5.8 Generic sun4u sparc SUNW, Ultra-5_10 - Sun WorkShop C++ 5.0 (4.2 compatibility mode)

Unzipping The Distribution:

The entire distribution requires approximately 5 MB of free disk space to unzip. Two distributions are available, one for

Windows 95/98 and one for UNIX.

Windows 95:

To unzip this distribution you will need a copy of PKZIP version 2.03 for DOS or WINZIP version 6.1 or higher for Windows 95. To unzip using PKZIP 2.03 follow these instructions:

C:\>mkdir vbsocket
C:\>copy vbt2000.zip c:\vbthread
C:\>cd vbthread
C:\vbthread>pkunzip -d vbt2000.zip

UNIX:

To unzip this distribution you need a copy GZIP/GUNZIP version 1.2.4 or higher. To unzip using GZIP and the UNIX tar utility follow these instructions:

% gzip -d vbt2000.tgz
% tar xvf vbt2000.tar

To unzip using GUNZIP and the UNIX tar utility follow these instructions:

% gunzip vbt2000.tgz
% tar xvf vbt2000.tar

NOTE: You can use UNZIP for UNIX version 5.12 to unzip the Windows 95/98 distribution:

% mkdir vbthread
% cp vbt2000.zip vbthread\vbt2000.zip
% cd vbthread

% unzip -a -L vbt2000.zip

The unzip "-a" option will auto-convert any text files and the

"-L" option will make the directory and file names all lower case.