Putting "Downloading" In a Thread

[Baker]

Ok, as referenced in a prior post, utilizing libcurl to download within the engine in a function often doesn't send "keepalive" messages with the right frequency to keep the client connected to the server.

I want to split this out to be its own thread.

No big deal.

1. Create a barebones download.exe and use CreateProcess(..., ...) [Linux would probably be execlp (..., ...)
2. Pass the information via the "command line"

I can do that easy. Start the process and have it check whether or not the process is completed each frame.

But what is "right way" to do this?

1. I could, with enough experimentation turn the .exe into a .dll ... is there a way that the .dll could provide feedback information to the engine like percent downloaded while it is running?

2. Is there a way within the main engine source to create a threaded process? Google Chrome, for instance, as far as I understand it creates a new thread for each tab.

[daemonicky]

[mh]

[Spike]

[Baker]

[Spike]

threads are imho easier, at least simple ones with a 'go' function and a 'done' flag set somewhere. :)
Use only reenterant functions (ie: don't write to globals) and its fairly easy.

[frag.machine]

[Baker]

[Spike]

[Baker]