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den3107

Member

From: Netherlands

Joined: 2015-04-24

Posts: 1,025

Would this be a valid way of pausing your code?

Let's start with a notice:

I don't need to know alternatives, they've been spread around the forums enough, I wish to keep this topic to my implementation only to prevent never ending discussions.

▼READ ABOVE FIRST

Alright, now lets get to the actual question...

Imagine a BAL, where there will be rounds.
A round would start with initialization, then wait 5 minutes (or whatever) and then the round ends. Period (to make the example easier).
The bot never stops, so rounds keep on coming (again for simplicity).

So now the code:

public class GameMaster
{
    // Variable used to waiting:
    AutoResetEvent autoResetEvent;

    public GameMaster()
    {
            autoResetEvent= new AutoResetEvent();
    }

    public void Run()
    {
        while(true)
        {
            // Initialize round
            Initialize();

            // Wait 5 minutes
            // Setup and start timer (it conflicted with another import, hence why it's so specific)
            System.Timers.Timer timer = new System.Timers.Timer(1000 * 60 * 5); // Normally this'd obviously be a constant value
            timer.AutoReset = false;
            timer.Elapsed += timer_elapsed;
            timer.Start();

            // Actual waiting:
            autoResetEvent.WaitOne();

            // Done waiting, get winner of round
            ProcessWinner();

            // And start the next round!
        }
    }

    void timer_elapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e)
    {
         autoResetEvent.Set();
    }
}

Now obviously you could optimize this specific code by declaring the timer outside of the while loop so you don't have the make it over and over again.
But again: Please focus on the waiting method, obviously this is just an example.

So yeah... Is this simply a horrific method, is it just fine, should I change something somewhere, etc. etc.

Edit: the reason I'm not calling ProcessWinner() in the timer is because normally (in my cases at least) a whole lot more would happen than just a single method call, and I don't think it's that good to put all those variables in the class scope so the elapsed event can continue where the Run() method left of.

Edit2: If you have any questions, try reading the posts below, it already should contain some extra clarity.

hummerz5

Member

From: wait I'm not a secret mod huh

Joined: 2015-08-10

Posts: 5,852

Re: Would this be a valid way of pausing your code?

Did you explain why you have autoResetEvent? It seems extra to me. Perhaps if it was public then external code would interface with it nicely?
Or internal, I guess. Maybe I'll give it a google

---

thanks HG, HG, HG, HG! anatoly, zumza! zoey!

den3107

Member

From: Netherlands

Joined: 2015-04-24

Posts: 1,025

Re: Would this be a valid way of pausing your code?

Did you explain why you have autoResetEvent? It seems extra to me. Perhaps if it was public then external code would interface with it nicely?
Or internal, I guess. Maybe I'll give it a google

The autoresetevent is there to "lock the code", until it's Set() method has been called.

Without it you'd just start a timer and right after call ProcessWinner(), without any delay.

hummerz5

Member

From: wait I'm not a secret mod huh

Joined: 2015-08-10

Posts: 5,852

Re: Would this be a valid way of pausing your code?

edit: wait, you didn't want other answers.

In this post I would tell you what I think is closer to the right answer. I cannot say that your method is completely wrong as I don't understand the implications of thread-hogging.

edit2: My last revision still hinted at other possibilities.

---

thanks HG, HG, HG, HG! anatoly, zumza! zoey!

den3107

Member

From: Netherlands

Joined: 2015-04-24

Posts: 1,025

Re: Would this be a valid way of pausing your code?

What if we just assigned ProcessWinner to an event handler like Tick? I thought the gist of setting up a Timer was to avoid having to hog a thread like we are.

edit: yeah the loop would have to go as well... the timer is supposed to take care of that stuff

The hogging is actually meant to happen, forgot to mention the GameMaster class would run in a separate thread.
The while loop it to keep starting up a new round, normally "true" would be replaced by an expression to see if the next game would have to start (imagine an elimination game where a game consists of rounds where each round a couple players would be eliminated).
The timer just takes care of waiting a certain amount of time, while allowing for other possibilities a simple Thread.Sleep() wouldn't have.

Again, as said in the edit, usually there's much more to process than just the ProcessWinner() method, where a lot of variables are used, which would need an unnecessary big scope to process everything in the timer elapsed event (and would bring other problems, if not watched out for).

EDIT:

edit: wait, you didn't want other answers.

What you gave was an adjustment/repair suggestion/however you want to call it, which is different from a complete alternative. Aside from that you also tried to get clarity from the OP.

hummerz5

Member

From: wait I'm not a secret mod huh

Joined: 2015-08-10

Posts: 5,852

Re: Would this be a valid way of pausing your code?

OK, that makes more sense. I'm still not sure about your idea, but that's OK. Just want to say that your while condition wouldn't tick save for every five minutes. So, it'd be more of a "Should we stop running rounds now" instead of a "Should this round stop" but perhaps you already know that

counter-edit: yeah, I edited out that part where I said "boo on you this is magic here" so I mean thanks

---

thanks HG, HG, HG, HG! anatoly, zumza! zoey!

den3107

Member

From: Netherlands

Joined: 2015-04-24

Posts: 1,025

Re: Would this be a valid way of pausing your code?

OK, that makes more sense. I'm still not sure about your idea, but that's OK. Just want to say that your while condition wouldn't tick save for every five minutes. So, it'd be more of a "Should we stop running rounds now" instead of a "Should this round stop" but perhaps you already know that

As said in the casus (the imagine stuff), after the initialization (when the round starts) the round goes on for 5 minutes before determining the winner, it's not that each while tick would have to be exact 5 minutes.
For simplicity of the example I also just made it a while true, while, obviously, you'd normally check somewhere if you should stop starting new rounds.

Again: The given code isn't for an actual BAL idea, it's just an example to show the waiting mechanic.
Which consists of the timer (measure time) and the autoresetevent (lock thread and unlock once timer done).

P.S. Am off to sleep now, so won't reply for a couple hours if more questions pop up.