Async plugins

[NiLSPACE]

We discussed this in the forum as well: http://forum.mc-server.org/showthread.php?tid=1830

The plugins could have a big advantage if they could create threads preferably in the same Lua state.

An example where this could be used: In WorldEdit you could read an large area, and do something in a different thread in that area. Afterwards the area could be written back into the world.

The usage could look like this:

-- CreateSphere is a function that creates a sphere in a cBlockArea
-- BA is a blockarea that was read in before
-- DstBlock is the block to make the sphere out of.

local EditSes = cThread(CreateSphere)
EditSes:SetOnFinish(
  function(... --[[ All the values returned]] )
     --[[ Write the (possibly returned) blockarea back in the world, and send a message to the player ]] 
  end
)
EditSes:Start(BA, DstBlock)

[NiLSPACE]

Wouldn't it be possible to add this by creating a new class that overrides cIsThread?
It could look like this:

class cLuaThread : public cIsThread
{
public:
    cLuaThread(cLuaState S) 
        : super(AString("Lua" + static_cast<char>(g_NumLuaThreads++))),
        m_LuaState(S)
    {
        m_Function.RefStack(m_LuaState, 1);
    }

    typedef cIsThread super;
    cLuaState::cRef m_Function;
    cLuaState m_LuaState;

protected:
    virtual void Execute(void) override
    {
        m_LuaState.Call(m_Function);
    }
};

[worktycho]

Where are you planning on getting the luaState from? That's the actual problem, because we can't use the plugins existing LuaState as it is not thread safe.