Delay() Question

[chris319]

I'm not sure if this is a bug.

The following code:

Code: Select all

Repeat

Delay(1)

Forever

causes the OS X Activity Monitor to show the process as "Not Responding", whereas in Windows it does not.

I am writing a program which involves repeated calls to either Delay() or WaitWindowEvent(). It works for a while, then locks up.

[chris319]

I think I have identified my problem. I was using a window timer and that seemed to have destabilized everything. Maybe the Mac window timer needs to be looked into. I concocted a workaround using threads and Delay().

[WilliamL]

That's interesting. I've used the window timer in simple programs and haven't had any problems. I remember reading that using Delay can interfere with the event loop but I can't remember how so I've been avoiding using Delay. Maybe combining the two were a problem.

If you can make a short piece of code demonstrating the problem, post it as a bug.

[chris319]

Well, the program I'm using this in is kind of elaborate as it uses PortAudio which has a callback function to handle audio capture, so making a simple demo would not be straightforward. I will see if I can write a program with a timer specifically for the purpose of causing a failure.

[WilliamL]

I understand. I think we've all run into that dilemma.

The Mac version of PB is still evolving and I'm glad to hear you have a 'work-around'.

[freak]

This is normal. If you use a GUI and you don't call WaitWindowEvent() on a regular basis, then the OS will assume that your program is not responding because... well, it actually is not responding to GUI messages. That is what WaitWindowEvent() does.

[chris319]

My workarounds didn't work very well so I rewrote the program using PortAudio's blocking interface instead of the callback interface. Luckily it wasn't difficult to do. It is now much more stable. The code now looks like so:

Code: Select all

Repeat

//Call PortAudio function which returns when audio buffer is full

event = WindowEvent()

//Process window events

Forever

The CPU usage is about half of what it was using the PortAudio callback interface (now about 4% - 5%).