Doing Multi Threaded Gui In Visual Basic

Perhaps I've missed the point but its not that hard.

There are two approaches

Use a timer tick and DoEvents.

Sub Form_Load()
'Disable controls that have to wait for your long process.
cmdThatUsesData.enabled = false
'Set timer interval to something low and enable it
DBLoadingTimer.interval = 1
DBLoadingTimer.enabled = true
DoEvents
' do the rest of your form loading
End Sub
Sub DBLoadingTimer_Timer()
'Disable the timer
DBLoadingTimer.enabled = false
'Do the long process but put doevents every so often
'Enable the controls
cmdThatUsesData.enabled = true
End Sub


Use a timer tick and Do heavy stuff in separate activeX exe component

The timer set up if the same but the time calls a method on an object in a separate activeX exe component

You use an Event to signal completion of the task

Sub DBLoadingTimer_Timer()
'Disable the timer
DBLoadingTimer.enabled = false
DBLoader.Loadstuff
End Sub
Sub DBLoader_StuffDone()
'Enable the controls
cmdThatUsesData.enabled = true
End Sub


This code is off the top of my head, so probably not exactly right.

The first approach can lead to a jerky GUI if the steps between DoEvents are not small, if they are small the DoEvents introduce a fair bit of overhead.