Pointer to member function

From:
Dan Smithers <dsmithers@talktalk.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:12:05 +0100
Message-ID:
<g4083l$h4r$1@aioe.org>
I want to implement a C++ wrapper to C code that requires a function
pointer to be passed in. Specifically, I want a wrapper for pthread that
clients can use as a base class.

Is there a way of passing a non-static member function in that will do
this?

In the following code, if I use the static k_main then it builds and
runs, but the derived class uses the implementation in CMyThread.

If I use a virtual member function, I get a compile error:
thread2.cpp:21: error: argument of type ?void* (CMyThread::)(void*)?
does not match ?void* (*)(void*)?

Presumably this is because the member function pointer still expect the
this parameter when it is called.

I have thought of an alternative way that requires the CMyThread
constructor to pass the this pointer as an additional argument that is
then used in k_main to call the member function. It just looks really
horrible.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <pthread.h>

class CMyThread
{
protected:
  pthread_t m_thread;
  void *m_args;

  static void *k_main( void *ptr );
  virtual void *m_main( void *ptr );
public:
  CMyThread(char *name);
  virtual ~CMyThread();
};

CMyThread::CMyThread(char *args)
  : m_args(args)
{
  int rc = pthread_create( &m_thread, NULL, m_main, (void *)args);
}

CMyThread::~CMyThread()
{
  pthread_join( m_thread, NULL);
}

void *CMyThread::k_main(void *args)
{
  char *message;
  message = (char *) args;
  printf("Base Static %s \n", message);
}

void *CMyThread::m_main(void *args)
{
  char *message;
  message = (char *) args;
  printf("Base Virtual %s \n", message);
}

class CMyDerivedThread : public CMyThread
{
protected:
  static void *k_main( void *ptr );
  virtual void *m_main( void *ptr );

public:
  CMyDerivedThread(char *name);
  virtual ~CMyDerivedThread();
};

CMyDerivedThread::CMyDerivedThread(char *args)
  : CMyThread(args)
{
}

CMyDerivedThread::~CMyDerivedThread()
{
}

void *CMyDerivedThread::k_main(void *args)
{
     char *message;
     message = (char *) args;
     printf("Derived Static %s \n", message);
}

void *CMyDerivedThread::m_main(void *args)
{
     char *message;
     message = (char *) args;
     printf("Derived Virtual %s \n", message);
}

main()
{
     pthread_t thread1, thread2;
     char *message1 = "Thread 1";
     char *message2 = "Thread 2";

     CMyThread t1(message1);

     CMyThread t2(message2);

     CMyDerivedThread("Thread 3");

     exit(0);
}

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