Two thread interactive program

[r00t]

Hey everyone,

I'm writing a two thread application.

First thread:
Requests for commands and processes them.

Second thread:
Periodically, for example every 10 seconds, shows all items in the list.

Question:

How to design the application in such way that it doesn't get interrupted when the user is typing a command, or maybe there is a different approach to this kind of application?

Any help welcome!

[CommonTater]

If you're worried about the second thread taking over the screen when the user is entering data you need to design some form of interprocess communication to block the second thread unless the first is idle for some period of time.

Alternatively you can regionalize the screen so that user input occurs in one section and the timed reports appear in a different area.

The actual method you use to do this will be different for each OS and will depend in large part upon the multitasking libraries you are using.

[r00t]

yes, that's exactly what i was wondering about..

can u tell me about the alternative method? how do i organize it in CLI?

Thanks!

[CommonTater]

yes, that's exactly what i was wondering about..

can u tell me about the alternative method? how do i organize it in CLI?

Thanks!

This is where you need to make decisions about where you want things to happen....

For example you may want the timed output on the right while the operator works on the left... so you arrange your display statements to locate the cursor on a certain character before each line...

You might want the operator to work on the bottom half while your data prints out on the top half... this to is simply a matter of moving the cursor to the correct location before printing...

Scrolling a split screen is going to be a software task, but it is all doable

[r00t]

Scrolling a split screen is going to be a software task, but it is all doable

What do you mean a software task?

Is it possible to provide an example ?

[CommonTater]

What do you mean a software task?

Is it possible to provide an example ?

Unless you have screen libraries to split scroll the screen (i.e. scroll one region but not the rest) you're going to have to write that code into your program.

I'm sorry, I don't have an example on hand...