1 files changed, 56 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/Source/SPThreadAdditions.m b/Source/SPThreadAdditions.m
index c1f0a52b..74476888 100644
--- a/Source/SPThreadAdditions.m
+++ b/Source/SPThreadAdditions.m
@@ -29,17 +29,69 @@
 //  More info at <https://github.com/sequelpro/sequelpro>
 
 #import "SPThreadAdditions.h"
+#import <objc/objc-runtime.h>
+
+//this is a "private" class only needed by the +detachNewThreadWithName:… method below.
+@interface SPNamedThread : NSObject {
+	@private
+	NSString *name;
+	id object;
+	SEL selector;
+}
+- (id)initWithTarget:(id)aObject selector:(SEL)aSelector name:(NSString *)aName;
+- (void)run:(id)argument;
+@end
 
 @implementation NSThread (SPThreadAdditions)
 
 + (void)detachNewThreadWithName:(NSString *)aName target:(id)aTarget selector:(SEL)aSelector object:(id)anArgument
 {
-	NSThread *newThread = [[NSThread alloc] initWithTarget:aTarget selector:aSelector object:anArgument];
-	if (aName) {
-		[newThread setName:aName];
-	}
+	// -[NSThread setName:] has two limitations when it comes to visibility in Xcode:
+	// a) Xcode only updates the thread name in UI once (on the first time the thread is shown in the debugger).
+	// b) Internally this method calls
+	//        int	pthread_setname_np(const char*);
+	//    which, as can be seen, does not allow to specify a thread id. Therefore it is skipped if <calling thread != self>.
+	//    Unfortunately this (and not the property of the NSThread) seems to be the actual name shown in Xcode.
+	// The consequence is, we can only set a thread's name from within the thread, so let's add a proxy object to do that.
+	SPNamedThread *namedThread = [[SPNamedThread alloc] initWithTarget:aTarget selector:aSelector name:aName];
+	
+	NSThread *newThread = [[NSThread alloc] initWithTarget:namedThread selector:@selector(run:) object:anArgument];
 	[newThread start];
 	[newThread autorelease];
+	[namedThread autorelease];
+}
+
+@end
+
+#pragma mark -
+
+@implementation SPNamedThread
+
+- (id)initWithTarget:(id)aObject selector:(SEL)aSelector name:(NSString *)aName
+{
+	if(self = [super init]) {
+		name = [aName copy];
+		object = [aObject retain];
+		selector = aSelector;
+	}
+	return self;
+}
+
+- (void)run:(id)argument
+{
+	[[NSThread currentThread] setName:name];
+	
+	void (*msgsend)(id, SEL, id) = (void (*)(id, SEL, id)) objc_msgSend; //hint for the compiler
+	
+	msgsend(object,selector,argument);
+}
+
+- (void)dealloc
+{
+	[object release], object = nil;
+	selector = NULL;
+	[name release], name = nil;
+	[super dealloc];
 }
 
 @end