Sockets and Synchronization

[iLL]

Okay, so I'm tying to get use to programming with sockets, and I have run into a bit of a snag.


As of now, my program basically works like this:

Server: Listen for a connection
Client: Request a connection
Server: Accept connection
Client: Send message
Client: Wait for response
Server: Processes message
Server: Send response

I want my client to also listen for message from the server. And these message can happen at any time. When you do something like:

...
public final void listen(Socket s)
{
    InputStream in = s.getInputStream();
    int aByte;
    while((aByte=in.read())!=-1)
    {
        //Do stuff
    }
}
...
 

The read blocks until until something can be read. This is a desired effect. However, I would like to prevent the listening thread from waking so that I can send a message and get the response without that while loop picking it up.

Is there any way to guarantee that?

I could open up two connections, one for sending and one for receiving. Is that frowned upon? It seems like a wast of resources.

[JosAH]

A socket is not a verty heavy weight resource; open two sockets: one for the server to push messages to a client and one for normal client/server communication. The client should have a separate thread reading from the first socket (it'll block when the server doesn't send anything).

kind regards,

Jos

[iLL]

I think I'll give that a shot.

I got it working by blocking threads... But it caused communication to be about 20% slower.

Thanks for the reply.