I want to create two threads in my game. One thread is for timer and other for touch events. Because when I am running my game on iPhone, timer conflicts with touch events and touch events are not reported. It works smooth in simulator but on iPhone or on iPod Touch it's becomes very slow. So I'm using separate threads for touch events and timer.
When I use [NSThread sleepForTimeInterval:0.01] it makes all threads sleep. I mean touch events are also stop to come through. I want to stop the timer thread only.
This is my code:
-(void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
BOOL Done = NO;
while (!Done)
{
NSAutoreleasePool *loopPool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
[NSThread sleepForTimeInterval:0.01];
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(callTapCode) withObject:tapView waitUntilDone:YES];
//performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(callTapCode) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:YES];
[loopPool release];
Done=YES;
}
[pool drain];
}
If you are trying to create a timer, you should probably just use NSTimer, because that's simpler and more efficient than creating a thread just to send a "go" event every so often.
edit: As is, you aren't creating a second you are merely stalling the main thread by calling [NSThread sleepForTimeInterval:0.01] in a loop. This means your main thread is no longer running the event loop which can cause all kinds of things to no longer work.
[[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] runUntilDate:[NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:0.01]];
Related
Scenario is like this--
In my app there is an Scroll View with many instances of
MyCustomImageDownloaderController(containing imageViews where images are to be assigned after downloading) .
As per our requirement, an image has to be downloaded as we move on to a page.
Scroll View + (MyCustomImageDownloaderController1, MyCustomImageDownloaderController2, MyCustomImageDownloaderController3.... etc)
Let's say i am scrolling on it,
i reached to page 1 --> image for it should start downloading
i reached to page 2 --> image for it should start downloading...so on
and if i am on page 3 and images for previous pages if not been dowloaded, they should stop downloading.
So i tried it with using threads..
on API..
- (void)scrollViewDidEndDecelerating:(UIScrollView *)sender{
Step 1) calculated currentPageNumber
Step 2) started thread for downloading image with url for this currentPage
//startBackGroundThreadForPlaceImage:(NSURL *) url
Step 3)stopped thread for previous page , if that is still running
}
Now My MyCustomImageDownloaderController is as
-(void) startBackGroundThreadForPlaceImage:(NSURL *) url{
if(isImageDownloaded == NO){
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
//[self performSelectorInBackground:#selector(loadImageInBackground:) withObject:imageUrl];
myThread = [[NSThread alloc] initWithTarget:self selector:#selector(loadImageInBackground:) object:imageUrl];
//[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(loadImageInBackground:) toTarget:self withObject:imageUrl];
[myThread start];
NSLog(#"The current thread is %# ", [[NSThread currentThread] name]);
[pool release];
}
}
NOW Here selector does the work of loading image and assigning to image view
Now Stopping the thread
-(void) stopBackgroundThread{
[myThread cancel];
//[[NSThread currentThread] cancel];
//if([[NSThread currentThread] isCancelled]) {
//[NSThread exit];
//}
[NSThread exit];
}
-(BOOL) isThreadRunning{
return [myThread isExecuting];
}
So i tried a lot of things, but could not Stop the thread in between..
Basically once instantiated thread using any of three methods
1) perform Selector in BackGround
2) NSThread detach new thread
3) NSThread alloc..init with..
In first 2 methods how to get the instance of the newly created thread, so that i could stoop it,
as NSThread currentThread doest not give that
in Method 3,
myThread = [[NSThread alloc] initWithTarget:self selector:#selector(loadImageInBackground:) object:imageUrl];
when i tried
[myThread cancel];
It did not cancel that thread,,
When i tried
[NSThread exit];
it hangs on current screen,,,,i guess it has stopped the main thread
Please help me
Thanks in Advance*strong text*
It's generally better to ask the thread to stop, rather than forcing it, which should be considered a last resort. You should, therefore, frequently check a 'stop flag' and when this gets set, terminate the current thread (by simply exiting the method, in this case). You just need to provide a property on the class the thread is operating on so callers can ask the thread to stop.
It's no different in C++ or Java.
I have a piece of code which calls [NSOperationQueue waitUntilAllOperationsAreFinished], in which the queue, I have placed a sensor detector for the Accelerometer.
The accelerometer delegate requires the Main thread in order to respond to didAccelerate to record the data collected. However, with the Queue blocking the main method, it seems the delegate for the Acclerometer never gets to fire. I've also noticed anything forced to run on the Main thread (NSOBject performSelectorOnMainThread:withObject:waitUntilDone) after the NSOperationQueue block occurs, will also never run.
Is there another option available to me that will allow the blocking to occur, but still allow the Accelerometer delegate to fire off.
Here's a quick snippet of code:
NSOperation* accelOp = [[AccelerometerOperation alloc] init];
NSOperationQueue* queue = [[NSOperationQueue alloc] init];
[queue addOperation:accelOP];
[queue waitUntilAllOperationsAreFinished];
And for AccelerometerOperation, where I have bypassed the problem of having it not end when the start method finishes by modifying isFinished and isExecuting:
-(void) start{
[[UIAccelerometer sharedAccelerometer] setDelegate:self];
}
- (void)accelerometer:(UIAccelerometer *)accelerometer didAccelerate:(UIAcceleration *)acceleration{
NSLog(#"Did accelerate");
}
If I remove the waitUntilALlOperationsAreFinished, the log prints "Did accelerate." However, with the waitUntilFinished running, even putting a break point into DidAccelerate won't trigger.
I have an app that needs to signal continuously a word in morse code. I did this by creating an NSThread and running some code inside the selector with a "while loop". Here is the code:
#implementation MorseCode
-(void)startContinuousMorseBroadcast:(NSString *)words{
if (!(threadIsOn)) {
threadIsOn = YES; s
myThread = [[NSThread alloc] initWithTarget:self selector:#selector(threadSelector:) object:words];
[myThread start];
}
if (morseIsOn) {
morseIsOn = NO;
}
else{
morseIsOn = YES;
}
}
-(void)threadSelector:(NSString *)words{
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
while (![myThread isCancelled]) {
// ///it Does some code here
} //end While
NSLog(#"Cleaning the pool");
[pool drain];
}
#end
When exiting the application (the user presses the button), in the applicationDidEnterBackground the following selector is executed:
-(void)cleanUpMorseObject{ //this is defined in the MorseCode class, same as threadSelector
if (threadIsOn) {
NSLog(#"cleanUpMorseObject, threadIsOn");
threadIsOn = NO;
morseIsOn = NO;
[myThread cancel];
[myThread release];
}
}
The application responds correctly to the event, I’ve checked with nslog.
And then [MorseCode release] is called.
The code looks like this:
-(void)applicationDidEnterBackground{ //this happens in the ViewController
[theMorse cleanUpMorseObject]; //theMorse is an instance of MorseCode
[theMorse release];
}
The problem: Although I call [myThread release] and then [theMorse release] the retainCount of the theMorse is still above 0 (It doesn’t call the dealloc).
The Leaks Instrument doesn’t say I have a leak, but if I open and close the application for like 10 times eventually the Iphone resets. Also in the debugger eventually I see the “Received memory warning. Level=2”.
Also I never see the NSLog before the pool drain…
The app doesn't run in the background.
Any ideas? Thank you
You really should schedule the sending of the message on the RunLoop, the probably easiest way being to schedule a timer (repeat infinitely, and short repeat period like FLT_EPSILON or similar) instead of using threads for that.
Working with threads is complicated and as everyone should avoid it (as Apple stated in its Concurrency Programming Guide, and as most documentation said, "Threads are evil" ;)).
That's because multithreading is a vast and complicated subject, that needs synchronizations, resources protection, being aware of dead locks, critical sections & so on, good and adapted memory mgmt, and much much more. In general if you need to do stuff in the background:
Use mechanisms already in place (like asynchronous implementation of some operations and being signalled by delegate methods or notifications) if available
Use methods like performInBackground:
Use NSOperationQueues
Use GCD
And only in last resort and if there are no other options (or for really specific cases), use NSThread.
This will avoid you a lot of issues as all the other, higher APIs will take care of a lot of things for you.
Moreover, using threads for this task like you do is likely to use much more CPU (will probably reach 100% usage quickly) as there won't be any time left for the task scheduler (that also why even GCD that takes care of all stuff like that is way better than NSThreads, and scheduling the sending in the RunLoop is even better for the CPU if you don't need strong RT constraints)
First, retainCount can never return 0. It is a useless method. Don't call it.
Secondly, leaks only detects objects that are no longer referenced. If a thread is still running, it isn't leaked.
Finally, a thread doesn't stop when you call cancel. It just sets a flag that you have to check via isCancelled to see if it is time to stop work in the thread. Are you doing that?
OK -- easy stuff answered. Next? Try build and analyze. Then use the Allocations instrument and turn on reference count tracking. Then see what is calling retain an extra time.
I decided to give up the NSThread class and used another aproach:
-(void)playSOSMorse{
if ([myTimer isValid]) {
[myTimer invalidate];
[myTimer release];
myTimer = nil;
}
myTimer = [[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:0.001
target:self
selector:#selector(tymerSelector)
userInfo:nil
repeats:NO] retain];
//the timer calls a selector that performs a selector in background
}
-(void)tymerSelector{
[self performSelectorInBackground:#selector(threadSelector2) withObject:nil];
}
-(void)threadSelector2 {
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
//some code here
[pool drain];
//calls another selector on the main thread to see if it needs to fire the timer again and restart the cycle
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(selectorOnMainThread) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:NO];
}
-(void)selectorOnMainThread{
[myTimer invalidate];
[myTimer release];
myTimer = nil;
if (morseIsOn) { //this is a boolean that if it is true (YES) calls the timer again
[self playSOSMorse];
}
}
I hope this helps somebody :)
Thank you
I'm trying to add a progress meter, or other "I'm busy right now" notification to my view hierarchy right before doing some intense computation that will block the UI. My code looks some thing like:
//create view
[currentTopView addSubView:imBusyView];
//some initialization for the intense computation
[computation startComputing];
Unfortunately, my progress meter doesn't display until after the computation completes. It appears like the views aren't re-drawn until the run loop completes. I'm pretty sure that setNeedsDisplay and setNeedsLayout will also wait until the run loop completes.
How do I get the view to display immediately?
Redrawing only occurs when your code returns control to the run loop. So the easiest way would be for you to schedule the startComputing call with a zero delay. That way, it will be executed during the next run loop iteration (right after redrawing):
[computation performSelector:#selector(startComputing) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.0];
Be aware, though, that unless you do your computation in another thread you will not be able to update the UI during the computation.
If you are doing heavy calculations maybe spawning a new thread is a good idea.
Here I have an activityIndicator displayed and starts a large XMLParse operation in a background thread:
- (void) setSearchParser {
activityIndicator = [[ActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivity];
[self.view addSubview:activityIndicator];
[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(getSearchResults:) toTarget:self withObject:[searchParser retain]];
}
then the getSearchResults method:
- (void) getSearchResults: (SearchResultParser *) parser {
NSAutoreleasePool* pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
[parser startParser];
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(searchResultsReady:) withObject:[parser data] waitUntilDone:NO];
[pool release];
}
So firstly make a new thread:
[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(getSearchResults:) toTarget:self withObject:[searchParser retain]];
this means that all code inside the getSearchResults will be executed on a different thread. getSearchResults also get's passed a parameter of "searchParser" thats a large object that just needs startParse called on it to begin.
This is done in getSearchResults. When the [parser startParser] is done, the results is passed back to the main thread method called "searchResultsReady" and the threads autorelease pool is released.
All the time it took from my parser began to it had finished, a gray view covered the screen an an activityIndicator ran.
You can have the small activityIndicator class I wrote:
-(id) initWithActivity {
[self initWithFrame:[self bounds]];
[self setBackgroundColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
[self setAlpha:0.8];
activityView = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleWhiteLarge];
activityView.center = CGPointMake(160, 240);
[self addSubview:activityView ];
[activityView startAnimating];
return self;
}
- (void) dealloc {
[activityView release];
[super dealloc];
}
Hope it helps you out, even though threads seems a bit confusing, they can help to make the UI not freeze up, which is especially important on the iPhone.
Kinda new to iPhone programming and was experimenting with threads
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(changeMain) toTarget:self withObject:nil];
[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(changeThread) toTarget:self withObject:nil];
}
- (void)changeMain{
NSAutoreleasePool* arp = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) {
[mainValue setText:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",i]];
[self.view setNeedsDisplay];
}
[arp release];
}
- (void)changeThread{
NSAutoreleasePool* arp = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) {
[threadValue setText:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",i]];
[self.view setNeedsDisplay];
}
[arp release];
}
mainValue and threadValue are both just UILabels. I expected this to run and see both labels run up to 999999 but instead it starts at some low number (what it is when the screen initally refreshing i assume), pauses for a bit, then updates to 999999. I'm thinking the screen just isn't refreshing.
Is this correct? Am I doing it wrong?
You have to perform any Cocoa Touch operations in main thread, in other case results are unpredictable.
You don't have to call setNeedsDisplay manually.
So I'd recommend to use the following construction:
[threadValue performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(setText:) withObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",i] waitUntilDone:YES];
Additional notes:
1. 100000 runs can overflow the main thread queue so some values will disappear
2. You can use waitUntilDone:NO too
The setNeedsDisplay message triggers a redraw, but it only happens during the next time the main thread becomes active. So your side threads trigger a million redraws but they are queued. As soon as the main thread continues, it "collapses" all requests into one redraw.
Most likely setNeedsDisplay just sets a flag that is checked once during each run of the main loop, so setting it 1000000 to true doesn't influence anything. Try to let the "worker threads" sleep after each iteration to give the main thread some time to redraw.
Don't use for() for animations. The for will process in the same "frame". Maybe just have an ivar i and in changeMain you can have if (i<10000) { mainValue.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",i]; i++;} or something like that. This way the setText only happens once per "frame".
I'm not sure if this will work, but you could try to force the setNeedsDisplay method to be executed on the main thread, using e.g. [self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(setNeedsDisplay) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:YES]. This should (hopefully, i didn't test it!) update the view after every increment. You could also try to set waitUntiDone:NO, but I'm unsure what will happen then.
See here