Generic ThreadPool in .NET

Since it's trivial to package whatever state you like by passing an anonymous delegate or lambda to the threadpool (through variable capture), there's no need for a generic version.

For example, you could write a utility function:

static void QueueItem<T>(Action<T> action, T state){    ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(delegate { action(state); });}

But it wouldn't be terribly useful, as you can simply use a delegate yourself any time you need state in the pooled task.

It sounds like you are talking about a work queue? (and I sound like clippy...)

For the record, thread-pool threads should typically be used for short pieces of work. You should ideally create your own threads for a long-lived queue. Note that .NET 4.0 may be adopting the CCR/TPL libraries, so we'll get some inbuilt work queues for free - but it isn't hard to write a threaded work-queue. And you can make it generic, too ;-p

Re the question - I prefer the captured variables approach to passing state into threads (be they Thread, ThreadPool, or Control.Invoke):

    Thread t = new Thread(() => SomeMethod(arg));    t.IsBackground = true;    t.Name = "Worker n";    t.Start();

This gives you much more granular control over the thread, without saturating the ThreadPool.

ThreadPool exists since .NET 1.1 which didn't have Generics.

I like how they chose not to break backwards compatibility :-)