LabWindows: implementing thread safe queues that can handle string elements

Question

I have a Labwindows server that listens for data from a python client on a remote machine. On the Labwindows server, whenever the TCP_DATAREADY event is fired, I read the buffer to get the data from the client. At this point I need to parse the data and update UI controls. However, since data arrives frequently, it is best if I can assign the task of parsing the data and updating UI controls to a different thread, so the server won't lose any data from the client.

I have thought of using thread safe queues in Labwindows. However, the data I get from the client is a string. How do I construct a queue which has string elements? I can't use pointers as the data received from the client is updated everytime data arrives.

Here is the piece of code that reads data from the socket:

case TCP_DATAREADY:
            if ((dataSize = ServerTCPRead (g_hconversation, receiveBuf,
                                           dataSize, 1000))
                < 0)
                {
                SetCtrlVal(g_hconversation, MAINPNL_TEXTBOX,"Receive Error");
        }
            else
                {
        //receiveBuff should be passed to function that decides where to display it
        display_value_from_client(receiveBuf);

                }

So, receiveBuf is constantly changing and saving pointers to it in the queue won't help. How do I implement threading here so my threads take care of the parsing functionality and I only need to worry about reading data from the socket in the main thread?

Answer 1

The 'classic' way of performing such inter-thread comms is to malloc the receiveBuf, queue off the buffer pointer after receipt of data and immediately malloc another receive buffer for the next load of data. You can free the buffer pointers after handling them in the GUI.

Such an approach means that the UI and network threads never operate on the same buffer and so can operate independently.