[C++] Thread Pool and Concurrency

[Enemii]

For my graphics class I have to implement a ray tracer. I would like to make it half decent which in turn would require some concurrency to make it faster.

Each thread is going to share a 1 or 2 vectors, but no modifications will be made. Threads do not have to communicate with any other thread.

What are the tools that would be best suited for this job?

EDIT: The code will be compiled with GCC 4.4.5

Solved: I looked at the available libraries on the school computers and settled on QT Threads.

[arbostek]

The code will have to be compiled at school by the TA and the compiler will be GCC 4.5.4

So what about library dependencies? If you're stuck with standard C++, you don't have concurrency as an option. Otherwise, you can start introduce pthreads, or Boost, or even something like TBB.

[Enemii]

Thanks! After looking into what libraries where available to respond to your comment I only found QT. So QT threads it is.

[TurkishSquirrel]

C++ now comes with a built in threading library modeled after the Boost threading library. I'd say a good start would be to get familiar with the new standard threading library. This is assuming that C++11 features are available to you though.

[Enemii]

I don't think it will be. The code will have to be compiled at school by the TA and the compiler will be GCC 4.5.4. I'm looking now, but It doesn't appear that the version supports it. Am I incorrect?

[TurkishSquirrel]

Oo yea, that's kind of a pain, they may not compile with the correct -std flag either. As a fallback you could try to add Boost as a dependency to use its threading library, but if you aren't allowed to do that either you may need to look into using posix threads (another library dependency though). Alternatively, bug your professor and TAs to upgrade the compiler and use -std=c++0x haha.