Ruby/Tk refresh problem

[Diego Virasoro]

Hello,
I am using Ruby 1.8.7 with Tk. The code runs fine. However, a few
instructions that I set while the program is busy (basically before
starting heavy computation it sets a TkLabel to display "Busy"... and
once it's done it sets it back to "") do not seem to have much of an
effect.

My fear is that it might be a problem like refreshing, whereby Tk
doesn't receive the instruction until it's too late. Is there a way to
flush all the instructions to Tk and let it do its magic before
continuing running my code?

Thanks.

Diego

 

[Hidetoshi NAGAI]

From: Diego Virasoro <[email protected]>
Subject: Ruby/Tk refresh problem
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 19:39:15 +0900

I am using Ruby 1.8.7 with Tk. The code runs fine. However, a few
instructions that I set while the program is busy (basically before
starting heavy computation it sets a TkLabel to display "Busy"... and
once it's done it sets it back to "") do not seem to have much of an
effect.

Maybe, you call the heavy computation *IN* a callback.
If so, that is a very bad way on event-driven programing.

The heavy part blocks the eventloop.
And then, the GUI cannot receive any events.
That is, the GUI seems to freeze.

A callback procedure should return as soon as possible.
One of the simple way to do that is to make a thread executing the
heavy computation.
Of course, you never join the thread in a callback.
Instead of joining, you should generate an event (TkVariable#wait may
be useful) to tell the finishing of the thread.

For example, the following is a bad sample.
------------------------------------------------------------------
require 'tk'
l = TkLabel.newtext=>'MESSAGE').pack
TkTimer.new(500, -1,
proc{l.foreground 'black'},
proc{l.foreground 'red'}).start
TkButton.newtext=>'start heavy work',
:command=>proc{10.times{|n| sleep 1; p n}}).pack
Tk.mainloop
------------------------------------------------------------------
When clicking the button, this GUI seems to freeze.

Please compare with the following.
------------------------------------------------------------------
require 'tk'
l = TkLabel.newtext=>'MESSAGE').pack
TkTimer.new(500, -1,
proc{l.foreground 'black'},
proc{l.foreground 'red'}).start
TkButton.newtext=>'start heavy work',
:command=>proc{Thread.new{10.times{|n| sleep 1; p n}}}).pack
Tk.mainloop
------------------------------------------------------------------

The following is another sample.
------------------------------------------------------------------
require 'tk'
l = TkLabel.newtext=>'MESSAGE').pack
TkTimer.new(500, -1,
proc{l.foreground 'black'},
proc{l.foreground 'red'}).start
b = TkButton.newtext=>'start heavy work',
:command=>proc{
b.state :disable
Thread.new{
10.times{|n| sleep 1; p n}
b.state :normal
}
}).pack
Tk.mainloop

 

[Antonio Galeone]

Have you tried "Tk.update" call ?

Antonio

Hello,
I am using Ruby 1.8.7 with Tk. The code runs fine. However, a few
instructions that I set while the program is busy (basically before
starting heavy computation it sets a TkLabel to display "Busy"... and
once it's done it sets it back to "") do not seem to have much of an
effect.

My fear is that it might be a problem like refreshing, whereby Tk
doesn't receive the instruction until it's too late. Is there a way to
flush all the instructions to Tk and let it do its magic before
continuing running my code?

Thanks.

Diego