Python sleep doesn't work right in a loop?

[ritterhaus]

Just a simple bit of code to toggle between two state at intervals...

import time
for i in range(4):
print 'On'
time.sleep(1)
print 'Off'
time.sleep(1)

.... SHOULD toggle On and Off four times with one-second pauses. When I
run this, the loop pauses the full eight seconds then prints the Ons
and Offs all at once. What's up with that?

[wittempj]

For me it works fine. It seems that for you stdout is not flushed
correctly in your terminal. What kind of terminal are you writing to?

[Diez B. Roggisch]

ri********@yaho o.com wrote:

Just a simple bit of code to toggle between two state at intervals...

import time
for i in range(4):
print 'On'
time.sleep(1)
print 'Off'
time.sleep(1)

... SHOULD toggle On and Off four times with one-second pauses. When I
run this, the loop pauses the full eight seconds then prints the Ons
and Offs all at once. What's up with that?

Works for me - on a terminal using linux. BUT what not works is this:

python /tmp/test.py | cat

(test.py contains your code of course) The reason is buffered pipes being
used. Try this:

import time, sys
for i in range(4):
print 'On'
sys.stdout.flus h()
time.sleep(1)
print 'Off'
sys.stdout.flus h()
time.sleep(1)

--
Regards,

Diez B. Roggisch

[Mike Rovner]

ri********@yaho o.com wrote:

... SHOULD toggle On and Off four times with one-second pauses. When I
run this, the loop pauses the full eight seconds then prints the Ons
and Offs all at once. What's up with that?

Run your script as:

python -u script.py

for unbuffered output.

[ritterhaus]

This is running in the interactive 'PyShell', but in truth those print
statements are part of a gui app that flashes a control in wx.widgets
by toggling it's background color. The same behavior either way.

[ritterhaus]

Nope. Does't work. Running Python 2.3.4 on Debian, Linux kernel 2.6.
This is actually test code for a larger project...

# flash the selected wx.TextControl

for flasher in range(4):
self.textField. SetBackgroundCo lour(255, 0, 0)
time.sleep(0.8)
self.textField. SetBackgroundCo lour(255, 255, 223)
time.sleep(0.8)

Even when I add an explicit call to repaint the TextCtrl between each
sleep, things appear to be 'queued' until after the loop is fnished.
Very bizarre.

[Mike Rovner]

ri********@yaho o.com wrote:

Nope. Does't work. Running Python 2.3.4 on Debian, Linux kernel 2.6.
This is actually test code for a larger project...

# flash the selected wx.TextControl

for flasher in range(4):
self.textField. SetBackgroundCo lour(255, 0, 0) self.textField. Update() time.sleep(0.8)
self.textField. SetBackgroundCo lour(255, 255, 223) self.textField. Update() time.sleep(0.8)

Even when I add an explicit call to repaint the TextCtrl between each
sleep, things appear to be 'queued' until after the loop is fnished.
Very bizarre.

If you use .Refresh() request still queued.

/m

[Steve Holden]

ri********@yaho o.com wrote:

Nope. Does't work. Running Python 2.3.4 on Debian, Linux kernel 2.6.
This is actually test code for a larger project...

# flash the selected wx.TextControl

for flasher in range(4):
self.textField. SetBackgroundCo lour(255, 0, 0)
time.sleep(0.8)
self.textField. SetBackgroundCo lour(255, 255, 223)
time.sleep(0.8)

Even when I add an explicit call to repaint the TextCtrl between each
sleep, things appear to be 'queued' until after the loop is fnished.
Very bizarre.

Not at all, but completely unrelated to your initial question.

You need to use a specific call before each sleep to tell wxPython to
update the display, since the sleep doesn't give control back to the
display subsystem. I think the call you need is app.Yield(), but the
docs will confirm that.

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden [phone] [phone]
Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming http://pydish.holdenweb.com/

[Diez B. Roggisch]

Nope. Does't work. Running Python 2.3.4 on Debian, Linux kernel 2.6.
This is actually test code for a larger project...
No Nope - it _does_ work. Did you actually try it? Because you use it in a
wrong context does not mean that it doesn't work. Besides, giving a wrong
example to prove a point is always a bad idea.
# flash the selected wx.TextControl

for flasher in range(4):
self.textField. SetBackgroundCo lour(255, 0, 0)
time.sleep(0.8)
self.textField. SetBackgroundCo lour(255, 255, 223)
time.sleep(0.8)

Even when I add an explicit call to repaint the TextCtrl between each
sleep, things appear to be 'queued' until after the loop is fnished.
Very bizarre.

That's a totally different thing - no idea how wx works in detail, but the
behaviour you describe looks as if the calls to SetBackgroundCo lour are
queued until the event loop is processed again. So check how to do that
manually between calls, and things are most probably working.

Again - giving the above example would made us give you that advice way
earlier - and saved us digging in the wrong direction...

--
Regards,

Diez B. Roggisch

[ritterhaus]

Actually, I've tried ALL of these things, and none of them work. I HAVE
run the simple for-print-sleep test code to try to determine if this
issue was specific to wx (that's good troubleshooting , folks - you
narrow down the problem) and even that didn't work, so I thought I'd
start with the simple problem first. Sorry if you were mislead.

As for wx, I HAVE used the for-setColour-refresh-update-sleep loop,
still no dice. The last thing the I put in the loop works (again, as if
all the changes are being queued) but the sleep just 'takes over' the
loop and nothing happens until al the sleeps are done. With or without
wx. Not good.