Does the SynchronizationContext is used only for WPF,Win forms?

Question

Each article i read about SynchronizationContext talks on dealing with the form's controls. Is it the only purpose of the SynchronizationContext?

And I have to ask a basic thing also: Why cant I just do a lock on each control befor i use if the UI thread use it? why i need all this "SynchronizationContext" to communicate with the controls? I mean, isnt it a better way to communicate the controls? (I know it wont work).

Articles:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/csharpfaq/archive/2010/06/18/parallel-programming-task-schedulers-and-synchronization-context.aspx

http://reedcopsey.com/2010/03/18/parallelism-in-net-part-15-making-tasks-run-the-taskscheduler/

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Answer 1

SynchronizationContext can be used to execute work in any other thread's context.

There is a main caveat here though: the other thread needs to be prepared for that, e. g. by using a message pump, like the UI threads in WinForm and WPF do. Also, those UI threads always have a SynchronizationContext, while other thread types typically don't.

As for locking as an alternative, that would need a completely different design inside Microsoft classes. It might be possible, though it might also result in threads blocking for a long time when waiting. I think it would open a lot of possibilities for misuse.

This article on codeproject is rather helpful, like https://stackoverflow.com/a/4107653/586754.