Thread sleeping and not blocking the GUI

[Rockslide]

Hi,
Please help me out with the following

Situation:
A login screen with only a "connect" button. Clicking the button should make the game connect to a server.
The server is not running, so it should just keep trying to connect (even though it never will) while not blocking the GUI.

Problem:
GUI freezes when I click the button. I have to kill the process with traskmanager.

Code:
This is the Thread that starts when the button is clicked:

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private static class ButtonCallback implements Runnable {        Game game;        public ButtonCallback(Game game) {           this.game = game;        }                public void run() {           game.network.connect("XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX", XXXX); // edited out IP for privacy       }     }

This is the class containing the 'connect()' method:

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public class Network {    Game game;    SocketChannel socketChan;        public Network(Game game) {       this.game = game;       socketChan = null;    }        public void connect(String server, int port) {       game.loginGui.lblStatus.setText("Connecting to: " + server + ":" + Integer.toString(port));       try {          socketChan = SocketChannel.open();          socketChan.configureBlocking(false);          socketChan.connect(new InetSocketAddress(server, port));          while (socketChan.isConnectionPending()) {             try {                Thread.sleep(10);             } catch (InterruptedException e) {}          }          game.loginGui.lblStatus.setText("Connected.");       } catch (UnknownHostException e) {          game.loginGui.lblStatus.setText("ERROR: Unknown host");          e.printStackTrace();       } catch (IOException e) {          game.loginGui.lblStatus.setText("ERROR: Failed to connect!");          e.printStackTrace();       }    } }

I thought the Thread.sleep would make sure the GUI keeps working. Why doesn't it?

Additional info:
Using LWJGL and TWL
Java eclipse
Windows 7

[zoto]

You will need the work performed in a different thread than the GUI.
This link should help http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/threads/threads2.html

[Rockslide]

You will need the work performed in a different thread than the GUI.
This link should help http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/threads/threads2.html

Yes, but isn't that what I'm doing by implementing runnable?

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[loom_weaver]

Implementing Runnable is necessary but not sufficient.  I don't see any reference of ButtonCallback in the main code...

Anyways, the link posted by zoto contains the information you need.

[Rockslide]

That link describes how it works in Swing, but I'm not using Swing, I'm using TWL.

The ButtonCallback is refered to in the main widget's constructor. Like so:

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btnConnect = new Button("Connect");         btnConnect.addCallback(new ButtonCallback(this.game));         add(btnConnect);

I assume TWL runs the runnable 'ButtonCallback' as a new thread when the button is clicked. (And indeed my run() code gets executed when I click the button).

Is this a problem of me not understanding threads, or is it specific to TWL and should I ask this question on a TWL forum?

Thanks

[princec]

Yeah it's a problem about you not understanding threads The callback will be performed in the same thread as the event is fired. So your callback actually needs to spawn a new Thread to do the actual asychronous work.

Cas

[Rockslide]

Yeah it's a problem about you not understanding threads The callback will be performed in the same thread as the event is fired. So your callback actually needs to spawn a new Thread to do the actual asychronous work.

Cas

Thanks, I guess I assumed wrong
I did what you said and it works now.

[princec]

Don't forget to disable the button before the thread starts, and then enable it again when the thread finishes.

Cas