While this chapter focused on a single topic, it was still quite diverse. You've learned everything about the TThread class, which is a basis for all multithreading code in Delphi. Even the task-based approach that we'll explore in the next chapter uses TThread as a basic building block.

I have shown three different ways of creating a TThread-based, multithreading solution. A program can take complete ownership of a thread so that it is created and destroyed by the owner. This approach is best used when a thread implements a service, as in such cases the main program knows best when the service is needed.

Another way, more appropriate for background calculations, is FreeOnTerminate mode. With this approach, a thread object is immediately destroyed when a thread's Execute function exits. The thread owner can set up an OnTerminate event to catch this condition and process the result of the calculation.

Instead of writing a separate class for each background operation, we can also create...