Some example code, makes use of boost thread, function and bind: 1st - a queue. It accepts "Jobs" which are of type boost::function<void()> More about creating jobs later #include <boost/thread/mutex.hpp> #include <boost/thread/condition.hpp> #include <boost/function.hpp> #include <list> // cross-thread job queue. multiple threads can post jobs, one or many threads can execute jobs. class job_queue { public: typedef boost::function<void()> Job; private: boost::mutex mtx_; boost::condition cnd_; typedef std::list<Job> Jobs; Jobs jobs_; int stop_; public: // puts a job into the queue void post(Job job) { boost::mutex::scoped_lock lock(mtx_); jobs_.push_back(job); cnd_.notify_one(); } // pulls one job from the queue, returns false when stopped bool pull(Job* job) { boost::mutex::scoped_lock lock(mtx_); for(;;) { // handle spurious wake-ups while(!stop_ && jobs_.empty()) cnd_.wait(lock); if(!jobs_.empty() && 2 != stop_) { job->swap(jobs_.front()); // move efficiently, avoiding *job = jobs.front() jobs_.pop_front(); return true; } else if(stop_) { return false; } } } // make pull() return false void stop(bool cancel_jobs) { boost::mutex::scoped_lock lock(mtx_); stop_ = 1 + cancel_jobs; // 1 - complete jobs, 2 - cancel jobs cnd_.notify_all(); } job_queue() : stop_() {} ~job_queue() { this->stop(true); } }; //----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd, you need to create a thread. The thread accepts a pointer to an event_queue, and loops indefinitely, pulling jobs off the queue and executing them. #include <boost/thread/thread.hpp> #include <boost/bind.hpp> #include <iostream> void loop(job_queue* queue) { std::cout << __PRETTY_FUNCTION__ << " thread id is: " << boost::this_thread::get_id() << std::endl; job_queue::Job job; // wait and execute jobs till stopped while(queue->pull(&job)) job(); // execute the job } //----------------------------------------------------------------------- boost::thread create_thread(job_queue* queue) { return boost::thread(boost::bind(loop, queue)); } //----------------------------------------------------------------------- Now you need to create jobs and post them to the queue. All jobs are functors. A functor is something which has the function operator "R operator()(A...)" - it must be of the form "void ()" for this queue to accept it. You can create your own functor (example below), or use boost::bind to create function objects for you. boost::bind can bind class member functions or free functions or even bind arguments to functors. See some example usage below: struct my_functor { void operator()() { std::cout << "Here I am, doing some work in " << __PRETTY_FUNCTION__ << " on thread " << boost::this_thread::get_id() << std::endl; } }; struct my_class { void some_function(int b) { std::cout << "Here I am, doing some work in " << __PRETTY_FUNCTION__ << " on thread " << boost::this_thread::get_id() << " and my input is " << b << std::endl; } }; void free_function_1() { std::cout << "Here I am, doing some work in " << __PRETTY_FUNCTION__ << " on thread " << boost::this_thread::get_id() << std::endl; } void free_function_2(char c) { std::cout << "Here I am, doing some work in " << __PRETTY_FUNCTION__ << " on thread " << boost::this_thread::get_id() << " and my input is " << c << std::endl; } int main() { std::cout << __PRETTY_FUNCTION__ << " thread id is: " << boost::this_thread::get_id() << std::endl; job_queue queue; boost::thread another_thread = create_thread(&queue); my_functor mf; my_class mc; queue.post(mf); // post a function object (functor) to the queue queue.post(boost::bind(&my_class::some_function, mc, 7)); // bind creates a functor - binding member function to class instance, and an argument queue.post(boost::bind(&free_function_1)); // bind creates a functor from a free function queue.post(boost::bind(&free_function_2, 'z')); // bind creates a functor from a free function and binds the argument // stop the queue and let it complete all jobs queue.stop(false); another_thread.join(); return 0; } //-----------------------------------------------------------------------