Example: io_pipes_example

Example console output:

[thread_reader ID:139741126407936] Started.
[thread_writer ID:139741118015232] Started.
RX: Hello world!
[thread_writer] Finished.
RX pose: (x,y,z,yaw,pitch,roll)=(1.0000,2.0000,3.0000,5.73deg,11.46deg,17.19deg)
[thread_reader] Finished.

C++ example source code:

/* +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   |                     Mobile Robot Programming Toolkit (MRPT)            |
   |                          https://www.mrpt.org/                         |
   |                                                                        |
   | Copyright (c) 2005-2023, Individual contributors, see AUTHORS file     |
   | See: https://www.mrpt.org/Authors - All rights reserved.               |
   | Released under BSD License. See: https://www.mrpt.org/License          |
   +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ */

#include <mrpt/io/CPipe.h>
#include <mrpt/poses/CPose3D.h>
#include <mrpt/serialization/CArchive.h>

#include <iostream>
#include <thread>

using namespace mrpt;
using namespace mrpt::poses;
using namespace mrpt::io;
using namespace std;

void thread_reader(CPipeReadEndPoint& read_pipe)
{
    try
    {
        std::cout << "[thread_reader ID:" << std::this_thread::get_id()
                  << "] Started." << std::endl;

        // Simple read commands:
        size_t len = 0;
        char buf[100];
        read_pipe.Read(&len, sizeof(len));
        read_pipe.Read(buf, len);
        buf[len] = 0;

        cout << "RX: " << buf << endl;

        // Read MRPT object from a pipe:
        // *Note*: If the object class is known in advance, one can avoid smart
        // pointers with ReadObject(&existingObj)
        auto arch = mrpt::serialization::archiveFrom(read_pipe);
        auto obj = arch.ReadObject();
        if (IS_CLASS(*obj, CPose3D))
        {
            CPose3D::Ptr ptrPose = std::dynamic_pointer_cast<CPose3D>(obj);
            cout << "RX pose: " << *ptrPose << endl;
        }

        printf("[thread_reader] Finished.\n");
    }
    catch (const std::exception& e)
    {
        cerr << e.what() << endl;
    }
}

void thread_writer(CPipeWriteEndPoint& write_pipe)
{
    try
    {
        std::cout << "[thread_writer ID:" << std::this_thread::get_id()
                  << "] Started." << std::endl;

        // Simple write commands:
        const char* str = "Hello world!";
        size_t len = strlen(str);
        write_pipe.Write(&len, sizeof(len));
        write_pipe.Write(str, len);

        // Send MRPT objects:
        mrpt::poses::CPose3D pose(1, 2, 3, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3);
        auto arch = mrpt::serialization::archiveFrom(write_pipe);
        arch.WriteObject(&pose);

        printf("[thread_writer] Finished.\n");
    }
    catch (const std::exception& e)
    {
        cerr << e.what() << endl;
    }
}

// ------------------------------------------------------
//              ThreadsTest
// ------------------------------------------------------
void ThreadsTest()
{
    // Create a pipe:
    std::unique_ptr<CPipeReadEndPoint> read_pipe;
    std::unique_ptr<CPipeWriteEndPoint> write_pipe;

    CPipe::createPipe(read_pipe, write_pipe);

    // And send the two end-points to two threads:
    std::thread hT1(thread_reader, std::ref(*read_pipe));
    std::thread hT2(thread_writer, std::ref(*write_pipe));

    // Wait for the threads to end.
    hT1.join();
    hT2.join();
}

// ------------------------------------------------------
//                      MAIN
// ------------------------------------------------------
int main()
{
    try
    {
        ThreadsTest();

        return 0;
    }
    catch (const std::exception& e)
    {
        std::cerr << "MRPT error: " << mrpt::exception_to_str(e) << std::endl;
        return -1;
    }
}