Questions: void SerialEcho::run()

[Conrad T. Pino]

void SerialEcho::run() {
  char* s = new char[getBufferSize()];

  cout << "start monitor" << endl;

  while (s[0] != 'X') {
    while (isPending(Serial::pendingInput)) {
      cout.put( TTYStream::get() );
    } 
    sleep(500);
  }

  cout << "end of monitor" << endl;

  delete [] s;
  
  exit();
}

What's the point of "while (s[0] != 'X')" when
"s[0]" is never modified?

What's the point of polling "isPending" in a loop?
Doesn't that defeat the very purpose of threading?

What are reasons this implementation won't work:

void SerialEcho::run( ) {
  cout << "start monitor" << endl;

  int data;
  while ( ( data = TTYStream::get( ) ) != 'X' ) {
    cout.put( data );
  } 

  cout << "end of monitor" << endl;

  exit();
}