Complex data in messages

[piegamesde]

How are messages handled internally? Why do they require Send and Clone?

My concrete problem is that I have some images, stored as gdk_pixbuf::Pixbuf in the model. When clicking on a button, a new image is selected then loaded. So I thought I'd put the new Pixbuf into some AddImage message. But I cannot do this because Message requires Send. Also since Message is Clone I'm starting to doubt if putting big data into it is a good idea at all.

So, how should I go about this? How can I still communicated with and update my model?

[wmww]

I'm sorry if this is irrelevant and/or dumb, but would putting an Arc<Mutex<gdk_pixbuf::Pixbuf>> in the message solve your problem?

[piegamesde]

It's neither nor. The problem with glib types is they are internally Rc<RefCell> wrapped. They all have inner mutability and can be cloned and passed around freely. From a Rust perspective, this means that you have absolutely no control over the data in the inner and a Mutex sadly won't change that.