Block_release deallocating UI objects on a background thread

Question

One of the patterns presented at the WWDC 2010 \"Blocks and Grand Central Dispatch\" talk was to use nested dispatch_async calls to perform time consuming tasks on a backgro

Answer 1

You can use the __block storage type qualifier for such a case. __block variables are not automatically retained by the block. So you need to retain the object by yourself:

__block UIViewController *viewController = [myViewController retain];
dispatch_async(backgroundQueue, ^{
    // Do long-running work here.
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
        [viewController updateUIWithResults:results];
        [viewController release]; // Ensure it's released on main thread
    }
});

EDIT

With ARC, __block variable object is automatically retained by the block, but we can set nil value to the __block variable for releasing the retained object whenever we want.

__block UIViewController *viewController = myViewController;
dispatch_async(backgroundQueue, ^{
    // Do long-running work here.
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
        [viewController updateUIWithResults:results];
        viewController = nil; // Ensure it's released on main thread
    }
});

Answer 2

In a thread, I just use [viewController retain]; then at the end of the thread use [viewController release]. It works and I don't use GCD~

Answer 3

This worked for me (added a timer):

[self retain]; // this guarantees that the last release will be on the main threaad
dispatch_async(backgroundQueue, ^{
    // do something time consuming in background
    NSArray *results = ComputeBigKnarlyThingThatWouldBlockForAWhile();

    // use results on the main thread
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
        [myViewController UpdateUiWithResults:results];
        [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:0.1 target:self selector:@selector(releaseMe:) userInfo:nil repeats:NO];
    });
});
- (void)releaseMe:(NSTimer *)theTimer {
    [self release]; // will be on the main thread
}