[Qt-interest] Multi-thread GUI app. using signal/slot

[Gino]

Hi,

I want to make a GUI for displaying real-time data from a simulation.
As the simulation is compute intensive it is natural to use 2 threads: 1 for 
the GUI and 1 for the simulation.

So my main would look like:
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
 QApplication app(argc, argv);

 systemc_thread sc_simulation;
 sc_simulation.start();

 // plot widget
 Plotter plotter;
 plotter.show();

 app.exec();
 sc_simulation.wait();
}

It is important that from the moment the simulation has data ( let's say one 
QPointF ) that the plotter get's updated.

I define systemc_thread  as
class systemc_thread : public QThread

Some background on the simulation: it is a SystemC / SystemC-AMS simulation 
( if you want more info, please look here, http://www.systemc.org/home)
Without going to much into detail: I need to use another API to structure 
the simulation.
I need to call a sc_main() method ( which I put in QThread::run() ). Inside 
sc_main() I can instantiate my simulation objects. Such a simulation object 
inherits from QObject ( so I can use signal/slots ) and from sc_module.

Like (only show code snippets):
void systemc_thread::run()
{
 sc_main();
}

int sc_main()
{
 // sc_modules
        sca_tdf::sca_signal<double> sig1;

 sin_src src("src", 1.0, 1.0e2);
 //...
}

class sin_src : public QObject, public sca_tdf::sca_module
{
// ...
 public slots:
  void setAmplitude(double value) { ampl = value; };
  void setFrequency(double value) { freq = value; };

signals:
  void send_sampled_data_to_plotter(QPointF newDataPoint);
}

But my problem now is:
how can I connect the signals and slots from sin_src in my main thread to 
the signals and slots from plotter?
I need to write something like this in main():
connect(<pointer to sin_src>, send_sampled_data_to_plotter(), &plotter, 
receive_data())

But I can't get pointer to sin_src in main().
In the main thread I only have pointer to thread class, which calls method 
which instantiates the objects I need pointers to. I can't instantiate them 
outside of sc_main.

My questions:
- is there an easier way of sending data and synchronizing these 2 objects ? 
Not using signal/slot?
- do I miss something basic/trivial in the setup above?

Any advice is welcome.

Thanks,

best regards,

Gino