[Python-Dev] Event loops, PyOS_InputHook, and Tkinter

[Michiel Jan Laurens de Hoon]

Martin v. Löwis wrote:

>Michiel Jan Laurens de Hoon wrote:
>  
>
>>But there is another solution with threads: Can we let Tkinter run in a 
>>separate thread instead?
>>    
>>
>
>Yes, you can. Actually, Tkinter *always* runs in a separate thread 
>(separate from all other threads).
>  
>
Are you sure? If Tkinter is running in a separate thread, then why does 
it need PyOS_InputHook?
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the code in _tkinter.c, but it appears that 
the call to Tcl_DoOneEvent and the main interpreter (the one that reads 
the user commands from stdin) are in the same thread.

Anyway, if we can run Tkinter's event loop in a thread separate from the 
main interpreter, then we can avoid all interference with other event 
loops, and also improve Tkinter's behavior itself:
1) Since this event loop doesn't need to check stdin any more, we can 
avoid the busy-wait-sleep loop by calling Tcl_DoOneEvent without the 
TCL_DONT_WAIT flag, and hence get better performance.
2) With the event loop in a separate thread, we can use Tkinter from 
IDLE also.

--Michiel.

-- 
Michiel de Hoon
Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Columbia University
1150 St Nicholas Avenue
New York, NY 10032