calling functions across threads

[It's me]

I haven't play with the thread stuff in Python (yet) but in general terms
(from a C mind), one should not expect read/write actions to be sequential
across threads.  I would assume the Python threads eventually goes back to
some system calls for thread handling.   If that were the case, you should
not be surprised at all that the I/O sequences appear to be quite
unpredictable.

If you absolutely, positively wants them to come out in a certain way, you
need to build in additionally serialization mechanisims in your code (like
use semaphores and stuff).



"Steven Bethard" <steven.bethard at gmail.com> wrote in message
news:NVBAd.280309$V41.151261 at attbi_s52...
> I'm playing around with some threading stuff right now, and I'm having a
> little trouble calling a function from one thread that affects another.
>   Here's my setup:
>
> py> import os, threading, time
> py> def write(file_in, input_lines):
> ...     for line in input_lines:
> ...         time.sleep(0.5)
> ...         file_in.write(line)
> ...         file_in.flush()
> ...     file_in.close()
> ...
> py> def read(file_out, output_list):
> ...     while True:
> ...         line = file_out.readline()
> ...         if not line:
> ...             break
> ...         output_list.append(line)
> ...
> py> def runthreads(lst):
> ...     file_in, file_out, file_err = os.popen3('cat')
> ...     write_thread = threading.Thread(
> ...         target=write, args=(file_in,
> ...                             ['%s\n' % x for x in range(10)]))
> ...     read_thread = threading.Thread(target=read,
> ...                                    args=(file_out, lst))
> ...     write_thread.start()
> ...     read_thread.start()
> ...     write_thread.join()
> ...     read_thread.join()
> ...
>
> Basically, I start one thread to read and one thread to write (from a
> os.pipe).  This all works fine for me:
>
> py> lst = []
> py> runthreads(lst)
> py> lst
> ['0\n', '1\n', '2\n', '3\n', '4\n', '5\n', '6\n', '7\n', '8\n', '9\n']
>
> I run into a problem though when I try to call an update method every
> time I read a line:
>
> py> class updatinglist(list):
> ...     def __init__(self, updater):
> ...         super(updatinglist, self).__init__()
> ...         self.updater = updater
> ...     def append(self, item):
> ...         super(updatinglist, self).append(item)
> ...         self.updater(len(self))
> ...
> py> def update(i):
> ...     print i
> ...
> py> lst = updatinglist(update)
> py> runthreads(lst)
> 1
> 2
> 3
> 4
> 5
> 6
> 7
> 8
> 9
> 10
> py> lst
> ['0\n', '1\n', '2\n', '3\n', '4\n', '5\n', '6\n', '7\n', '8\n', '9\n']
>
> I get the correct output, but if you run this yourself, you'll see that
> the numbers 1 through 10 aren't printed in sync with the writes (i.e.
> every half second); they're all printed at the end.  Could someone
> explain to me why this happens, and how (if possible) I can get the
> numbers printed in sync with the appends to the list?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Steve