Can someone tell me which module I should use to create tasks in windows
where I can run certain work in it. I used POE module, but this library
crashes when I load it with a lot of work and is not very happy with
ActiveState perl.
What do you recomend me?
Roman
I use linux, but, here is one option for you to consider.
Everything is a thread on win32, so you could use threads.
The only reason you would need to use threads, rather than
a separate process, is if you want to share data between your
threads and the main program. Otherwise you could just use
Win32:
rocess to spawn off your work.
The thing about threads, is that in general( to be foolproof
),
you need to create the threads before you create any objects
in your main thread. This usually means creating a bank of threads
at the beginning of the program, and putting them to sleep.
You then wake them up, and feed them data, and let them work,
let them go back to sleep when done.
You can create objects in the thread code block, which will only
be used in the thread, like LWP objects for net work.
You can create them dynamically, or use Thread::Queue, but
that is a little trickier.
Here is an example using Tk, you can rip the Tk code out, to
just get the basic thread code, but Tk gives an event-loop
style, like POE.
In the following example, I send the thread to the end of it's code
block, using an goto statement( for various reasons ), but you could
just as well use a return. For a thread to be properly terminated, it
must reach the end of it's code block( return), and then be joined
with the join command.
You can share data with the thread 2 ways.
1, thru shared variables, OR
2, you can pass it args on creation ( like passing @_ to a sub),
and get returned data when it is joined.
( like the return values from a sub)
There are tons of examples for threads on groups.google.com.
You really should say something about what sort of tasks you
want to run in the threads, because there are many different
styles and queue's which you can use.
This runs on Windows. I have noticed that threads work alot better
on WindowsXP, than on older versions like win95, or winME.
Earlier windows versions bog down when there are huge numbers
of shared variables.
This script runs a bank of 3 worker threads. It passes some code
to be run (example: date), then starts a counter.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use threads;
use threads::shared;
#works on Windows
my $data = shift || 'date'; #sample code to pass to thread
# create the threads before anything is done in main
# to avoid object thread safety problems
my %shash;
#share(%shash); #will work only for first level keys
my %hash;
my %workers;
my $numworkers = 3;
foreach my $dthread(1..$numworkers){
share ($shash{$dthread}{'go'});
share ($shash{$dthread}{'progress'});
share ($shash{$dthread}{'timekey'}); #actual instance of the thread
share ($shash{$dthread}{'frame_open'}); #open or close the frame
share ($shash{$dthread}{'handle'});
share ($shash{$dthread}{'data'});
share ($shash{$dthread}{'pid'});
share ($shash{$dthread}{'die'});
$shash{$dthread}{'go'} = 0;
$shash{$dthread}{'progress'} = 0;
$shash{$dthread}{'timekey'} = 0;
$shash{$dthread}{'frame_open'} = 0;
$shash{$dthread}{'handle'} = 0;
$shash{$dthread}{'data'} = $data;
$shash{$dthread}{'pid'} = -1;
$shash{$dthread}{'die'} = 0;
$hash{$dthread}{'thread'} = threads->new(\&work,$dthread);
}
use Tk;
use Tk:
ialog;
my $mw = MainWindow->new(-background => 'gray50');
my $lframe = $mw->Frame( -background => 'gray50',-borderwidth=>10 )
->pack(-side =>'left' ,-fill=>'y');
my $rframe = $mw->Frame( -background => 'gray50',-borderwidth=>10 )
->pack(-side =>'right',-fill =>'both' );
my %actives = (); #hash to hold reusable numbered widgets used for
downloads
my @ready = (); #array to hold markers indicating activity is needed
#make 3 reusable downloader widget sets-------------------------
foreach(1..$numworkers){
push @ready, $_;
#frames to hold indicator
$actives{$_}{'frame'} = $rframe->Frame( -background => 'gray50' );
$actives{$_}{'stopbut'} = $actives{$_}{'frame'}->Button(
-text => "Stop Worker $_",
-background => 'lightyellow',
-command => sub { } )->pack( -side => 'left', -padx => 10 );
$actives{$_}{'label1'} = $actives{$_}{'frame'} ->Label(
-width => 3,
-background => 'black',
-foreground => 'lightgreen',
-textvariable => \$shash{$_}{'progress'},
)->pack( -side => 'left' );
$actives{$_}{'label2'} = $actives{$_}{'frame'} ->Label(
-width => 1,
-text => '%',
-background => 'black',
-foreground => 'lightgreen',
)->pack( -side => 'left' );
$actives{$_}{'label3'} = $actives{$_}{'frame'} ->Label(
-text => '',
-background => 'black',
-foreground => 'skyblue',
)->pack( -side => 'left',-padx =>10 );
}
#--------------------------------------------------
my $button = $lframe->Button(
-text => 'Get a worker',
-background => 'lightgreen',
-command => sub { &get_a_worker(time) }
)->pack( -side => 'top', -anchor => 'n', -fill=>'x', -pady =>
20 );
my $text = $rframe->Scrolled("Text",
-scrollbars => 'ose',
-background => 'black',
-foreground => 'lightskyblue',
)->pack(-side =>'top', -anchor =>'n');
my $repeat;
my $startbut;
my $repeaton = 0;
$startbut = $lframe->Button(
-text => 'Start Test Count',
-background => 'hotpink',
-command => sub {
my $count = 0;
$startbut->configure( -state => 'disabled' );
$repeat = $mw->repeat(
100,
sub {
$count++;
$text->insert( 'end', "$count\n" );
$text->see('end');
}
);
$repeaton = 1;
})->pack( -side => 'top', -fill=>'x', -pady => 20);
my $stoptbut = $lframe->Button(
-text => 'Stop Count',
-command => sub {
$repeat->cancel;
$repeaton = 0;
$startbut->configure( -state => 'normal' );
})->pack( -side => 'top',-anchor => 'n', -fill=>'x', -pady => 20 );
my $exitbut = $lframe->Button(
-text => 'Exit',
-command => sub {
foreach my $dthread(keys %hash){
$shash{$dthread}{'die'} = 1;
$hash{$dthread}{'thread'}->join
}
if ($repeaton) { $repeat->cancel }
#foreach ( keys %downloads ) {
# #$downloads{$_}{'repeater'}->cancel;
#}
# $mw->destroy;
exit;
})->pack( -side => 'top',-anchor => 'n', -fill=>'x', -pady => 20
);
#dialog to get file url---------------------
my $dialog = $mw->Dialog(
-background => 'lightyellow',
-title => 'Get File',
-buttons => [ "OK", "Cancel" ]
);
my $hostl = $dialog->add(
'Label',
-text => 'Enter File Url',
-background => 'lightyellow'
)->pack();
my $hostd = $dialog->add(
'Entry',
-width => 100,
-textvariable => '',
-background => 'white'
)->pack();
$dialog->bind( '<Any-Enter>' => sub { $hostd->Tk::focus } );
my $message = $mw->Dialog(
-background => 'lightyellow',
-title => 'ERROR',
-buttons => [ "OK" ]
);
my $messagel = $message->add(
'Label',
-text => ' ',
-background => 'hotpink'
)->pack();
$mw->repeat(10, sub{
if(scalar @ready == $numworkers){return}
foreach my $set(1..$numworkers){
$actives{$set}{'label1'}->
configure(-text =>\$shash{$set}{'progress'});
if(($shash{$set}{'go'} == 0) and
($shash{$set}{'frame_open'} == 1))
{
my $timekey = $shash{$set}{'timekey'};
$workers{ $timekey }{'frame'}->packForget;
$shash{$set}{'frame_open'} = 0;
push @ready, $workers{$timekey}{'setnum'};
if((scalar @ready) == 3)
{ }
$workers{$timekey} = ();
delete $workers{$timekey};
}
}
});
$mw->MainLoop;
###################################################################
sub get_a_worker {
my $timekey = shift;
$hostd->configure( -textvariable => \$data);
if ( $dialog->Show() eq 'Cancel' ) { return }
#----------------------------------------------
#get an available frameset
my $setnum;
if($setnum = shift @ready){print "setnum->$setnum\n"}
else{ print "no setnum available\n"; return}
$workers{$timekey}{'setnum'} = $setnum;
$shash{$setnum}{'timekey'} = $timekey;
$workers{$timekey}{'frame'} = $actives{$setnum}{'frame'};
$workers{$timekey}{'frame'}->pack(-side =>'bottom', -fill => 'both' );
$workers{$timekey}{'stopbut'} = $actives{$setnum}{'stopbut'};
$workers{$timekey}{'stopbut'}->configure(
-command => sub {
$workers{$timekey}{'frame'}->packForget;
$shash{ $workers{$timekey}{'setnum'} }{'go'} = 0;
$shash{ $workers{$timekey}{'setnum'} }{'frame_open'} = 0;
push @ready, $workers{$timekey}{'setnum'};
if((scalar @ready) == $numworkers)
{ }
$workers{$timekey} = ();
delete $workers{$timekey};
});
$workers{$timekey}{'label1'} = $actives{$setnum}{'label1'};
$workers{$timekey}{'label1'}->configure(
-textvariable => \$shash{$setnum}{'progress'},
);
$workers{$timekey}{'label2'} = $actives{$setnum}{'label2'};
$workers{$timekey}{'label3'} = $actives{$setnum}{'label3'};
$workers{$timekey}{'label3'}->configure(-text => $timekey);
$shash{$setnum}{'go'} = 1;
$shash{$setnum}{'frame_open'} = 1;
#--------end of get_file sub--------------------------
}
##################################################################
sub work{
my $dthread = shift;
$|++;
while(1){
if($shash{$dthread}{'die'} == 1){ goto END };
if ( $shash{$dthread}{'go'} == 1 ){
eval( system( $shash{$dthread}{'data'} ) );
foreach my $num (1..100){
$shash{$dthread}{'progress'} = $num;
print "\t" x $dthread,"$dthread->$num\n";
select(undef,undef,undef, .5);
if($shash{$dthread}{'go'} == 0){last}
if($shash{$dthread}{'die'} == 1){ goto END };
}
$shash{$dthread}{'go'} = 0; #turn off self before returning
}else
{ sleep 1 }
}
END:
}
#####################################################################
