Re: Ada Library, called, returns and continues ?

["Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:21:16 -0800 (PST), Patrick wrote:

> I don't want the GUI to block and I want the freedom to use Ada's
> threading model without too many restrictions.

This is understandable
 
> I keep changing my mind but today I looking into the Fox Toolkit. I am
> thinking about writing a single threaded C++ or Ruby application and then
> calling Ada from it.

Why not to use something more Ada friendly? Anyway, single threaded GUI
means what? One thread = blocking.
 
> If I write and compile an Ada library into my
> GUI app, is it possible to call an Ada function, have it return quickly
> but then have Ada code continue to execute using threading?

Surely, but that would not be single-threaded anymore.

> Honestly I have not used Ada's threading yet

You should

> but could the GUI call an
> entry, perhaps after an initialization call to start the threads?

Yes, this is rather trivial. But you also need a communication channel back
to the GUI thread = asynchronous access to the GUI events, messages
whatever. E.g. a working task which modifies a GUI's progress bar as it
does the job. It is more than just starting tasks. There are various
solutions for this which always depend on the GUI framework at hand.

I have no idea about the Fox Toolkit. You should find out ways of doing
this there. Usually, when the framework is not natively multi-tasking, you
use polling, timer events, idle callbacks to implement the backward channel
(task to the main messages loop).

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de