Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
Reverse order and edit narrative
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
to highlight potential issues with Distributed and to link to the relevant manual entries
  • Loading branch information
LilithHafner committed Aug 3, 2022
1 parent c4fb516 commit a27145e
Showing 1 changed file with 43 additions and 36 deletions.
79 changes: 43 additions & 36 deletions docs/src/manual/async.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,13 +1,16 @@
# Asynchronous UI

It is possible to perform background computation without interfering with user interface
responsiveness either using separate processes or using multithreading. Use of a separate
process includes slightly more overhead but is also more robust.
responsiveness either using multithreading or using separate processes. Use of a separate
process includes slightly more overhead but also enusres user interface responsiveness more
robustly.

Here is an example using a separate process to offload the work.
Here is an example using [threads](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/multi-threading/).
Notice that this example will freeze the UI during computation unless Julia is run with two
or more threads (`julia -t2` on the command line).

```julia
using Gtk, Distributed
using Gtk

btn = GtkButton("Start")
sp = GtkSpinner()
Expand All @@ -18,37 +21,39 @@ grid[1,1] = btn
grid[2,1] = sp
grid[1:2,2] = ent

id = addprocs(1)[1]

signal_connect(btn, "clicked") do widget
start(sp)
@async begin
Threads.@spawn begin

# Offload work to a separate process and block until it is done.
counter = @fetchfrom id begin
stop_time = time() + 3
counter = 0
while time() < stop_time
counter += 1
end
counter
# Do work
stop_time = time() + 3
counter = 0
while time() < stop_time
counter += 1
end

# We are still in the main thread so it is okay to directly access widgets
stop(sp)
set_gtk_property!(ent, :text, "I counted to $counter in a separate process!")
# Interacting with GTK from a thread other than the main thread is
# generally not allowed, so we register an idle callback instead.
Gtk.GLib.g_idle_add(nothing) do user_data
stop(sp)
set_gtk_property!(ent, :text, "I counted to $counter in a thread!")
Cint(false)
end
end
end

win = GtkWindow(grid, "Distributed", 200, 200)
win = GtkWindow(grid, "Threads", 200, 200)
showall(win)
```

And here is an example using threads. Notice that this example will freeze the UI during
computation unless Julia is run with two or more threads (`julia -t2` on the command line).

Here is an example using a separate process to offload the work. This toy example is
fairly straightforward, but things can get more complex if the offloaded task is more
complex. See the [manual](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/distributed-computing/)
for details.

```julia
using Gtk
using Gtk, Distributed

btn = GtkButton("Start")
sp = GtkSpinner()
Expand All @@ -59,27 +64,29 @@ grid[1,1] = btn
grid[2,1] = sp
grid[1:2,2] = ent

id = addprocs(1)[1]

signal_connect(btn, "clicked") do widget
start(sp)
Threads.@spawn begin
@async begin

# Do work
stop_time = time() + 3
counter = 0
while time() < stop_time
counter += 1
# Offload work to a separate process and block until it is done.
counter = @fetchfrom id begin
stop_time = time() + 3
counter = 0
while time() < stop_time
counter += 1
end
counter
end

# Interacting with GTK from a thread other than the main thread is
# generally not allowed, so we register an idle callback instead.
Gtk.GLib.g_idle_add(nothing) do user_data
stop(sp)
set_gtk_property!(ent, :text, "I counted to $counter in a thread!")
Cint(false)
end
# We are still in the main thread so it is okay to directly access widgets
stop(sp)
set_gtk_property!(ent, :text, "I counted to $counter in a separate process!")
end
end

win = GtkWindow(grid, "Threads", 200, 200)
win = GtkWindow(grid, "Distributed", 200, 200)
showall(win)
```

0 comments on commit a27145e

Please sign in to comment.