Help Me!

Hello Everybody!
I am working on a program which renders its GUI using swing
components. The program does some bath processing (some lengthy
matematical calculations) when user submit a task using a command
button. but when that task is submitted the GUI stops responding to
events. I want to provide the option of interrupting the processing
prematurely but providing a command button is not helping beacause the
GUI is not responding to events once the calculations are started.
Please help me what sould i do.
Amit...

re: Help Me!

Just off the cuff, I thought the thread doing the calculations should
sleep() at intervals to allow the Gui to respond. Or, since I hardly do
Swing but heard this, is that one of the issues with swing, the each share
the same thread? If they don't, another approach is setting priorities on
the threads but that is so unpredictable it is probably not worth trying as
much as the first thing I mentioned with calculations and sleep() intervals.

J
"viator" <viator@rediffmail.com> wrote in message
news:dc828419.0310030952.31dd4fb4@posting.google.c om...[color=blue]
> Hello Everybody!
> I am working on a program which renders its GUI using swing
> components. The program does some bath processing (some lengthy
> matematical calculations) when user submit a task using a command
> button. but when that task is submitted the GUI stops responding to
> events. I want to provide the option of interrupting the processing
> prematurely but providing a command button is not helping beacause the
> GUI is not responding to events once the calculations are started.
> Please help me what sould i do.
> Amit...[/color]

re: Help Me!

good thought.... wrong model though.....

If the batch was kicked of via an event, the thread that is running it
happens to BE the event loop. For what you are trying to do, you will have
to create a new thread to do the calculations. You might want to make you
class implement Runnable, and then put the calculations in the run() method.
Then you could just call new Thread(this).start();


good luck

"James" <jamestthomas@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:OJlfb.487999$Oz4.331841@rwcrnsc54...[color=blue]
> Just off the cuff, I thought the thread doing the calculations should
> sleep() at intervals to allow the Gui to respond. Or, since I hardly do
> Swing but heard this, is that one of the issues with swing, the each share
> the same thread? If they don't, another approach is setting priorities on
> the threads but that is so unpredictable it is probably not worth trying[/color]
as[color=blue]
> much as the first thing I mentioned with calculations and sleep()[/color]
intervals.[color=blue]
>
> J
> "viator" <viator@rediffmail.com> wrote in message
> news:dc828419.0310030952.31dd4fb4@posting.google.c om...[color=green]
> > Hello Everybody!
> > I am working on a program which renders its GUI using swing
> > components. The program does some bath processing (some lengthy
> > matematical calculations) when user submit a task using a command
> > button. but when that task is submitted the GUI stops responding to
> > events. I want to provide the option of interrupting the processing
> > prematurely but providing a command button is not helping beacause the
> > GUI is not responding to events once the calculations are started.
> > Please help me what sould i do.
> > Amit...[/color]
>
>[/color]

re: Help Me!

"James" <jamestthomas@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:OJlfb.487999$Oz4.331841@rwcrnsc54...[color=blue]
> Just off the cuff, I thought the thread doing the calculations should
> sleep() at intervals to allow the Gui to respond. Or, since I hardly do
> Swing but heard this, is that one of the issues with swing, the each share
> the same thread? If they don't, another approach is setting priorities on
> the threads but that is so unpredictable it is probably not worth trying[/color]
as[color=blue]
> much as the first thing I mentioned with calculations and sleep()[/color]
intervals.

In my experience, the behavior of threads with different priorities id fully
predictable. One of my apps had a thread that updated a GUI. The update
worked, but was quite jerky, with a number of updates buffered up before
showing them. Lowering priority of the updating thread fixed the problem.
This effect was observed on Windows (98, NT, 2K and XP).

Just my $0.02

Alex Molochnikov
Gestalt Corporation

re: Help Me!

"Alex Molochnikov" <NOBODY@NO.SPAM> wrote in message
news:Resfb.12706$9l5.6566@pd7tw2no...[color=blue]
> "James" <jamestthomas@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:OJlfb.487999$Oz4.331841@rwcrnsc54...[color=green]
> > Just off the cuff, I thought the thread doing the calculations should
> > sleep() at intervals to allow the Gui to respond. Or, since I hardly do
> > Swing but heard this, is that one of the issues with swing, the each[/color][/color]
share[color=blue][color=green]
> > the same thread? If they don't, another approach is setting priorities[/color][/color]
on[color=blue][color=green]
> > the threads but that is so unpredictable it is probably not worth trying[/color]
> as[color=green]
> > much as the first thing I mentioned with calculations and sleep()[/color]
> intervals.
>
> In my experience, the behavior of threads with different priorities id[/color]
fully[color=blue]
> predictable. One of my apps had a thread that updated a GUI. The update
> worked, but was quite jerky, with a number of updates buffered up before
> showing them. Lowering priority of the updating thread fixed the problem.
> This effect was observed on Windows (98, NT, 2K and XP).
>
> Just my $0.02
>
> Alex Molochnikov
> Gestalt Corporation
>[/color]

I'm glad but the java specification offers very little guarantees on thread
priority. It cant, because the JVM is a thread battling for runtime on
equal footing with a screen saver in windows. yes it may work and it may
work on those platforms, but even then, you are fortunate and another
configuration could change anything. Logically there is no way the thread
priorities can guarantee anything - as Java's priorities dont match up with
windows (10 to 7) and they dont even come close to Solaris. Very little is
guaranteed with threads and java as pertains to universal performance.

re: Help Me!

Sounds good, my point was predicated on calculations having their own
thread.
"Thomas Smith" <removespam-thomas.smith@cox.net> wrote in message
news:FXrfb.38341$AH4.20789@lakeread06...[color=blue]
> good thought.... wrong model though.....
>
> If the batch was kicked of via an event, the thread that is running it
> happens to BE the event loop. For what you are trying to do, you will[/color]
have[color=blue]
> to create a new thread to do the calculations. You might want to make you
> class implement Runnable, and then put the calculations in the run()[/color]
method.[color=blue]
> Then you could just call new Thread(this).start();
>
>
> good luck
>
> "James" <jamestthomas@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:OJlfb.487999$Oz4.331841@rwcrnsc54...[color=green]
> > Just off the cuff, I thought the thread doing the calculations should
> > sleep() at intervals to allow the Gui to respond. Or, since I hardly do
> > Swing but heard this, is that one of the issues with swing, the each[/color][/color]
share[color=blue][color=green]
> > the same thread? If they don't, another approach is setting priorities[/color][/color]
on[color=blue][color=green]
> > the threads but that is so unpredictable it is probably not worth trying[/color]
> as[color=green]
> > much as the first thing I mentioned with calculations and sleep()[/color]
> intervals.[color=green]
> >
> > J
> > "viator" <viator@rediffmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:dc828419.0310030952.31dd4fb4@posting.google.c om...[color=darkred]
> > > Hello Everybody!
> > > I am working on a program which renders its GUI using swing
> > > components. The program does some bath processing (some lengthy
> > > matematical calculations) when user submit a task using a command
> > > button. but when that task is submitted the GUI stops responding to
> > > events. I want to provide the option of interrupting the processing
> > > prematurely but providing a command button is not helping beacause the
> > > GUI is not responding to events once the calculations are started.
> > > Please help me what sould i do.
> > > Amit...[/color]
> >
> >[/color]
>
>
>[/color]

re: Help Me!

How do you know the priority on windows is in the
range of 10-7? If I use the task manager in windows XP Professional
to change the priority of a process I am presented with the following
choices:

RealTime
High
AboveNormal
Normal
BelowNormal
Low

Did you notice that there is more than 5?
Also, I think/wonder if the Java priority is really a "SUB" priority
that operates within a single windows priority. For example
if I run a Java program via "java NewDraw" I am sure that
there is more than one thread inside this application, but
as far as windows is concerned there are two Processes
java.exe running at priority "normal" and
javaw.exe running at priority "normal"

Phil...


"James" <jamestthomas@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:8bCfb.494364$Oz4.341083@rwcrnsc54...[color=blue]
>
> "Alex Molochnikov" <NOBODY@NO.SPAM> wrote in message
> news:Resfb.12706$9l5.6566@pd7tw2no...[color=green]
> > "James" <jamestthomas@comcast.net> wrote in message
> > news:OJlfb.487999$Oz4.331841@rwcrnsc54...[color=darkred]
> > > Just off the cuff, I thought the thread doing the calculations should
> > > sleep() at intervals to allow the Gui to respond. Or, since I hardly[/color][/color][/color]
do[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
> > > Swing but heard this, is that one of the issues with swing, the each[/color][/color]
> share[color=green][color=darkred]
> > > the same thread? If they don't, another approach is setting[/color][/color][/color]
priorities[color=blue]
> on[color=green][color=darkred]
> > > the threads but that is so unpredictable it is probably not worth[/color][/color][/color]
trying[color=blue][color=green]
> > as[color=darkred]
> > > much as the first thing I mentioned with calculations and sleep()[/color]
> > intervals.
> >
> > In my experience, the behavior of threads with different priorities id[/color]
> fully[color=green]
> > predictable. One of my apps had a thread that updated a GUI. The update
> > worked, but was quite jerky, with a number of updates buffered up before
> > showing them. Lowering priority of the updating thread fixed the[/color][/color]
problem.[color=blue][color=green]
> > This effect was observed on Windows (98, NT, 2K and XP).
> >
> > Just my $0.02
> >
> > Alex Molochnikov
> > Gestalt Corporation
> >[/color]
>
> I'm glad but the java specification offers very little guarantees on[/color]
thread[color=blue]
> priority. It cant, because the JVM is a thread battling for runtime on
> equal footing with a screen saver in windows. yes it may work and it may
> work on those platforms, but even then, you are fortunate and another
> configuration could change anything. Logically there is no way the thread
> priorities can guarantee anything - as Java's priorities dont match up[/color]
with[color=blue]
> windows (10 to 7) and they dont even come close to Solaris. Very little[/color]
is[color=blue]
> guaranteed with threads and java as pertains to universal performance.
>
>[/color]

re: Help Me!

viator@rediffmail.com (viator) wrote in message news:<dc828419.0310030952.31dd4fb4@posting.google. com>...[color=blue]
> Hello Everybody!
> I am working on a program which renders its GUI using swing
> components. The program does some bath processing (some lengthy
> matematical calculations) when user submit a task using a command
> button. but when that task is submitted the GUI stops responding to
> events. I want to provide the option of interrupting the processing
> prematurely but providing a command button is not helping beacause the
> GUI is not responding to events once the calculations are started.
> Please help me what sould i do.
> Amit...[/color]
Read the javadoc for javax.swing.SwingUtilities#invokeLater() method
and linked documentations from there. Your time-consuming task should
run as a separate thread separated from Swing GUI rendering
thread(a.k.a. AWT event dispatch thread).

re: Help Me!

"viator" <viator@rediffmail.com> wrote in message
news:dc828419.0310030952.31dd4fb4@posting.google.c om...[color=blue]
> Hello Everybody!
> I am working on a program which renders its GUI using swing
> components. The program does some bath processing (some lengthy
> matematical calculations) when user submit a task using a command
> button. but when that task is submitted the GUI stops responding to
> events. I want to provide the option of interrupting the processing
> prematurely but providing a command button is not helping beacause the
> GUI is not responding to events once the calculations are started.
> Please help me what sould i do.
> Amit...[/color]

The biggest invalid assumption made here is that Windows is a multi-tasking
OS.
I'm running 2000 and it is constantly pausing with all kinds of programs and
not allowing other functions to run until the currently running program has
quit some procedure. OE does it all the time when it is going out and
bringing in mail - everything else stops until it completes the read, which
makes no sense because I/O uses very little of the systems resources (new
system with AMD 2500+ and 512 Meg ram). If I were using a phone modem I
would have to go out and have lunch while I waited.

Then again, M$ intelligence is equivelent to proverbial army intelligence --
so you really can't expect it to work in any reasonable fashion.

I also have a Linux machine (slower with less ram) and it runs circles
around the Windoze machine and never exhibits a slow response. It also goes
out and gets mail and I can't tell when it's doing it.

John

re: Help Me!

HGA03630@nifty.ne.jp (hiwa) wrote in message news:<6869384d.0310041636.72b8f108@posting.google. com>...[color=blue]
> viator@rediffmail.com (viator) wrote in message news:<dc828419.0310030952.31dd4fb4@posting.google. com>...
> Read the javadoc for javax.swing.SwingUtilities#invokeLater() method
> and linked documentations from there. Your time-consuming task should
> run as a separate thread separated from Swing GUI rendering
> thread(a.k.a. AWT event dispatch thread).[/color]

I tried the following two methods. . .
One using the SwingWorker Class. . .

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt){
Object o=evt.getSource();
if(o==cmdRun||o==txtInput){
final SwingWorker worker=new SwingWorker(){
public Object construct(){
/* the time consuming part */
runMachine();
return null;
}
};
worker.start();
}
/* other handlers . . .*/
}

And other one by implementing Runnable like this…

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt){
Object o=evt.getSource();
if(o==cmdRun||o==txtInput){
/* the time consuming part */
/* here the time consuming part it in the run method of this class*/
new Thread(this).start();
}
/* other handlers . . .*/
}

Is the second implementation violates single thread rule? Please note
that the user interface is also updated by "Time consuming part" to
render outputs. Although both the method are working fine. which one
is better though?