A unit of execution in a process. Can run methods on [Object]s simultaneously. The use of synchronization via [Mutex] or [Semaphore] is advised if working with shared objects.
To ensure proper cleanup without crashes or deadlocks, when a [Thread]'s reference count reaches zero and it is therefore destroyed, the following conditions must be met:
Returns the current [Thread]'s ID, uniquely identifying it among all threads. If the [Thread] has not started running or if [method wait_to_finish] has been called, this returns an empty string.
Returns [code]true[/code] if this [Thread] is currently running the provided function. This is useful for determining if [method wait_to_finish] can be called without blocking the calling thread.
To check if a [Thread] is joinable, use [method is_started].
</description>
</method>
<methodname="is_started"qualifiers="const">
<returntype="bool"/>
<description>
Returns [code]true[/code] if this [Thread] has been started. Once started, this will return [code]true[/code] until it is joined using [method wait_to_finish]. For checking if a [Thread] is still executing its task, use [method is_alive].
Should either be used when you want to retrieve the value returned from the method called by the [Thread] or before freeing the instance that contains the [Thread].