Question

How do threads work?

Answer 1

also, how do I build a multithreaded C application?

Answer 2

Here's the tutorial from Advanced Linux Programming that I used to write a threaded program: http://www.advancedlinuxprogramming.com/alp-folder/
Chapter 4 is threads.

As I understand (I hope) it, threads are like processes in that they execute. They differ from processes in that they share the memory space of their parent process. Since they're in the same space, they're much cheaper to "fork" than a new process would be.

Answer 3

I use a thread for pollijng database connections they run seperately from the UI so in my opnion the UI runs more efficiently since there isn't a process that continually runs sucking up the UI processor and ram...If you have a quad core processor though and 16 givgs of ram you probably won't notice the perfromance degradation....really for me programs under 10,000 lines on the desktop don't need to be threaded if they are a prototype. I do emphasize threaded processes for mobile devices such as java/Android or IOS/Objective-C programs.