First question here so hello everyone.

The requirement I'm working on is a small test application that communicates with an external device over a serial port. The communication can take a long time, and the device can return all sorts of errors.

The device is nicely abstracted in its own class that the GUI thread starts to run in its own thread and has the usual open/close/read data/write data basic functions. The GUI is also pretty simple - choose COM port, open, close, show data read or errors from device, allow modification and write back etc.

The question is simply how to update the GUI from the device class? There are several distinct types of data the device deals with so I need a relatively generic bridge between the GUI form/thread class and the working device class/thread. In the GUI to device direction everything works fine with [Begin]Invoke calls for open/close/read/write etc. on various GUI generated events.

I've read the thread here (How to update GUI from another thread in C#?) where the assumption is made that the GUI and worker thread are in the same class. Google searches throw up how to create a delegate or how to create the classic background worker but that's not at all what I need, although they may be part of the solution. So, is there a simple but generic structure that can be used?

My level of C# is moderate and I've been programming all my working life, given a clue I'll figure it out (and post back)... Thanks in advance for any help.