Introduction to OmniThreadLibrary

OmniThreadLibrary is a multithreading library for Delphi, written mostly by the author of this book (see Credits for full list of contributors). OmniThreadLibrary can be roughly divided into three parts. Firstly, there are building blocks that can be used either with the OmniThreadLibrary threading helpers or with any other threading approach (f.i. with Delphi’s TThread or with AsyncCalls). Most of these building blocks are described in chapter Miscellaneous, while some parts are covered elsewhere in the book (Lock-free Collections, Blocking collection, Synchronization).

Secondly, OmniThreadLibrary brings low-level multithreadingframework, which can be thought of as a scaffolding that wraps the TThread class. This framework simplifies passing messages to and from the background threads, starting background tasks, using thread pools and more.

Thirdly, OmniThreadLibrary introduces high-level multithreadingconcept. High-level framework contains multiple pre-packaged solutions (so-called abstractions; f.i. parallel for, pipeline, fork/join …) which can be used in your code. The idea is that the user should just choose appropriate abstraction and write the worker code, while the OmniThreadLibrary provides the framework that implements the tricky multithreaded parts, takes care of synchronisation and so on.

1.1 Requirements

OmniThreadLibrary requires at least Delphi 2007 and doesn’t work with FreePascal. The reason for this is that most parts of OmniThreadLibrary use language constructs that are not yet supported by the FreePascal compiler.

High-level multithreading framework requires at least Delphi 2009.

OmniThreadLibrary currently only targets Windows installation. Both 32-bit and 64-bit platform are supported.

1.2 License

OmniThreadLibrary is an open-sourced library with the OpenBSD license.

This software is distributed under the BSD license.

Copyright (c) 2015, Primoz Gabrijelcic

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
• The name of the Primoz Gabrijelcic may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

In short, this means that:

1. You can use the library in any project, free, open source or commercial, without having to mention my name or the name of the library anywhere in your project, documentation or on the web site.
2. You can change the source for your own use. You can also put a modified version on the web, but you must not remove my name or the license from the source code.
3. I’m not guilty if the software blows in your face. Remember, you got OmniThreadLibrary for free.