How to fire maxgui hooks during long operation?

BlitzMax Forums/MaxGUI Module/How to fire maxgui hooks during long operation?

skn3	(Posted 2011) [#1]

I have a potentially large manipulation of data to process in my app and I was wondering how to successfully process this without freezing out the window. The trigger to activate the long operation happens via a custom event message sent. There is an event hook setup to read this event and within the event hook it then performs the long task.

I can't seem to find any way to give a slice of time back to maxgui/os in order for things to update and so the windows do not freeze.

I have a custom progress bar gadget that updates via a timer in order to indicate that the application is "working". What command/technique do I use in order to let this timer tick mid long operation for/next loop?

I tried PollSystem() and it did not work. Is it possible to do pollsystem from within an EventHook?

Last edited 2011

skn3	(Posted 2011) [#2]

Heh answered my own question maybe (after some hours last night looking and today)!

It appears the PollSystem function doesn't poll if its already "polling".

Function PollSystem()
	If _busy Return
	_busy=True
	Driver.Poll
	_busy=False
End Function

So in my code I can just do

Driver.Poll()

Does anyone know of any side effects?

Last edited 2011

Htbaa

(Posted 2011) [#3]

I think that's also the solution to one of the problems I've got! Before I could call PollSystem again and it would return some time to the redrawing of the gadgets, but no more.

Going to try this one out myself as well!

Is _busy being accessed anywhere else as well? Perhaps something with thread safety?

Edit: Awesome! This totally works for me!

Last edited 2011

skn3	(Posted 2011) [#4]

Hurrah good stuff! I havnt noticed any weird crashes after a day of heavy coding so all seems stable!

The only other placed it seemed to be used is in waitevent()

Htbaa

(Posted 2011) [#5]

For the WaitEvent (and perhaps WaitSystem?) I can understand why it wouldn't do anything if it's "_busy". But for the PollSystem (and PollEvent?) stuff I'd say it should skip these "busy"-checks, no?

Perhaps one of the MaxGui coders can clarify?

skn3	(Posted 2011) [#6]

sounds sensible... ?

Htbaa

(Posted 2011) [#7]

I've been thinking about installing previous BlitzMax versions just to create a Diff between them to see if and or when this change was made. I always though it was due to the OS. I remember it working perfectly on Windows XP, but when I started using Vista it started to play up.