I'm having this wierd problem with the app freezing at a certain point. I'm guessing its got to do with how I'm using NSConditionLock.
Theres a library I have been given to use, which consists of a series of survey questions, but it works in such a way that it races directly to the last question without accepting answers, hence the need to pause the thread and accept input from the user.
I haven't used it before so maybe someone could help if I'm implementing it wrongly?
Please let me know if the code provided is insufficient.
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
//INITIALISE CONDITION LOCK WITH CONDITION 0
condition=[[NSConditionLock alloc]initWithCondition: 0];
}
- (IBAction)startPressed:(UIButton*)sender {
if (sender.tag == 1) {
//START BACKGROUND THREAD
surveyThread = [[NSThread alloc] initWithTarget:self selector:#selector(runProjecttest) object:nil];
[surveyThread start];
}
else
{
//DO SOME STUFF AND THEN UNLOCK
[condition unlockWithCondition:1];
}
}
- (void) runProjecttest:(AbstractTask *)rendertask
{
// DO STUFF AND SHOW UI ON MAIN THREAD, THEN LOCK
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(showUI:) withObject:task waitUntilDone:YES];
[condition lockWhenCondition: 1];
}
EDIT: In short, I want the Objc equivalent of this java snippet...
this.runOnUiThread(showUI);
try
{
//SLEEP
Thread.sleep(1000*60*60*24*365*10);
}
catch (InterruptedException e)
{
//WAKE
setResponse(at,showUI);
}
EDIT 2: ShowUI method on Paul's request.
[self removePreviousSubViews];
switch ([task getType]) {
case SingleChoiceType:
{
NSLog(#"SingleChoiceType");
isMultipleChoice = NO;
[self addSingleChoiceView:nil];
break;
}
case TextType:
{
NSLog(#"TextType");
self.txtTextType.keyboardType=UIKeyboardTypeDefault;
[self addTextTypeView:nil];
break;
}
...more cases
}
-(void)addTextTypeView:(NSSet *)objects
{
self.txtTextType.text = #"";
CGRect frame = self.txtQuestionType.frame;
// frame.size = [self.txtQuestionType sizeThatFits: CGSizeMake(self.txtQuestionType.frame.size.width, FLT_MAX)];
frame.size.height = [self textViewHeightForAttributedText:self.txtQuestionType.text andWidth:self.txtQuestionType.frame.size.width andTextView:self.txtQuestionType];
self.txtQuestionType.frame=frame;
self.textTypeView.frame = CGRectMake((self.view.frame.size.width - self.textTypeView.frame.size.width)/2, ( self.txtQuestionType.frame.origin.y+self.txtQuestionType.frame.size.height), self.textTypeView.frame.size.width, self.textTypeView.frame.size.height);
[self.view addSubview: self.textTypeView];
}
I agree with BryanChen, I think you may have another issue. Without details on the survey library, it is impossible to confirm, but assuming that it is a UIViewController than accepts touch inputs to progress through a series of questions, it is hard to see why it is a threading issue - it simply shouldn't advance without user interaction.
That aside, your use of NSCondtionLock doesn't look right either.
Essentially an NSConditionLock has an NSInteger that represents the current 'condition', but just think of it of a number. There are then two basic operations you can perform -
lockWhenCondition:x will block the current thread until the 'condition' is 'x' and the lock is available. It will then claim the lock.
unlockWithCondition:y releases the lock and sets the condition to 'y'
There are also methods to set timeouts (lockBeforeDate) and try to claim the lock without blocking (tryLock, tryLockWhenCondition).
To synchronise two threads, the general pattern is
Initialise Lock to condition 'x'
Thread 1 lockWhenCondition:x -This thread can claim the lock because it is x
Thread 2 lockWhenCondition:y - This thread will block because the lock is x
Thread 1 completes work, unlockWithCondition:y - This will enable Thread 2 to claim the lock and unblock that thread
Your code looks strange, because you are starting a thread in your if clause but unlocking in an else clause. I would have thought you would have something like -
-(IBAction)startPressed:(UIButton*)sender {
if (sender.tag == 1) {
//START BACKGROUND THREAD
surveyThread = [[NSThread alloc] initWithTarget:self selector:#selector(runProjecttest) object:nil];
[surveyThread start];
[condition:lockWithCondition:1]; // This will block until survey thread completes
[condition:unlockWithCondition:0]; // Unlock and ready for next time
}
}
- (void) runProjecttest:(AbstractTask *)rendertask
{
// DO STUFF AND SHOW UI ON MAIN THREAD, THEN LOCK
[condition lockWhenCondition: 0];
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(showUI:) withObject:task waitUntilDone:YES];
[condition unlockWithCondition:1];
}
BUT This looks like a recipe for deadlock to me, because you are performing the showUI selector on the main thread that is blocked waiting for the survey thread to complete.
Which brings us back to the question, what does showUI do and why is it skipping directly to the end?
I'm running mathematical computation in a background thread. Attempting to post results in real time in a UITextView. However the results don't show up until the background thread completes. Why not?
I kick off a method in the background,
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_LOW, 0), ^() {
[self v2];
});
The background thread method is of the form,
- (void) v2 {
NSString *result;
// ... loop a bunch of times generating lots of results
for (bunch of stuff to compute) {
// If using dispatch_async, nothing is displayed until this method finishes
// If dispatch_sync then it does display and update
result = [self computeNextValue];
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^() {
textView.text = result;
});
} // end computation
}
This actually hadn't been much of a problem until I started trying to scroll the view. Painfully slow. So I created a NSTimer to periodically scroll the UITextView. However, even though the timer popped and the method is run to request the scroll, the UITextView doesn't scroll until the background method completes.
First, make sure that you are using weakSelf rather than self within the block.
__weak MyClass weakSelf = self;
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_LOW, 0), ^() {
[weakSelf v2];
});
...
__weak MyClass weakSelf = self;
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^() {
weakSelf.textView.text = result;
});
But that won't cause the delayed update. I am very suspect of the queue's priority, DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_LOW. Try using DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT instead.
I think I figured it out, at least empirically.
It looks like setting text on a UITextView or programmatically initiating scrolling sets up an animation sequence thats run in another thread. What seems to be happening is that the requests to set the text of the UITextView is coming in faster than the ability of UITextView to setup the animation. When the property changes again, it apparently cancels the earlier animation that it was setting up on another thread. As I continue to flood it with change requests, its never able to finish what it wants to do before the value of 'text' has changed again.
My solution involves multiple steps.
In my original approach I was setting textView.text very rapidly to some new value. I set up a timer to periodically request the UITextView to scroll.
In my modification, I calculate the new value of the result string, but do not set it to the UITextView. Instead the text is set on the textview periodically based on the timer. This allows the text view to catch up.
However, I noticed that this still wasn't reliable. If I happened to set the text again while it was still scrolling, weird effects would occur, such as a very slow scroll. It seems that the scroll animation and repeated settings of text were still causing a problem.
So solve this problem, I created a property to indicate if the view is scrolling. Set the view controller as the UITextField delegate. When I request the view to scroll, I set the flag to indicate its scrolling. Only update the content and request scroll if its not already scrolling. Ends up working great. Doesn't matter how fast I set the timer, it ends up waiting appropriately.
// ViewController.h
#property BOOL isViewScrolling;
// ViewController.m
// initialize property in viewDidLoad
- (void)viewDidLoad {
self.isViewScrolling = FALSE;
textView.delegate = self;
self.timer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:0.1 target:self selector:#selector(scrollIt) userInfo:nil repeats:TRUE];
}
- (void)scrollIt {
NSLog(#"scrollit thread=%d", [[NSThread currentThread]isMainThread]);
if (!self.isViewScrolling) {
textView.text = self.result;
NSRange range = NSMakeRange(textView.text.length - 1, 1);
self.isViewScrolling = TRUE;
[textView scrollRangeToVisible:range];
}
}
// UITextView delegate
- (void)scrollViewDidEndScrollingAnimation:(UIScrollView *)scrollView {
NSLog(#"Animation stopped");
self.isViewScrolling = FALSE;
}
Try changing the predefined dispatch queue string to end with background.
__weak MyClass weakSelf = self;
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue( DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_BACKGROUND, 0), ^() {
weakSelf.textView.text = result;
});
Also you should add a UIActivityIndicator and start animating at the beginning of the operation, then stop animating after the textview.text field has been updated.
It's a nice feature to have to show the user there is a process currently being done
Also I would stay away from NSThread as I have read a few forums and docs from apple that emphasize the use of GCD and block operations.
I saw many threads related to this issue, but none addresses my case (I think).
My case should be simple, I have a Custom UIView in my controller, from my controller, I use the [self.myView setNeedsDisplay] and it works perfectly.
I'm having problems when Im trying to call this from inside of the UIView itself...I have a notification being sent from another class, and it is being received by my View (this works) with the information it passes, I update internal properties of this view and than I'm calling the [self setNeedsDisplay] wishing to have my screen updated with the new states, but nothing is happening, I used a NSLOG inside my drawRec method, and it is not being called at this time, it is only called when my controller class call the setNeedsDisplay, and when that happens, the update that should have happened before is showed on screen... I don't know why its not updating before...
Here are some code:
My controller asking for update: (works OK!)
- (void)addNodeToNetwork:(DTINode *)node
{
[self.myNetwork addNodeInTheNetwork:node];
self.gridView.nodesToDraw = [self.myNetwork.nodesInNetwork copy];
CGRect tempRec = CGRectMake(node.nodePosition.x, node.nodePosition.y node.nodePosition.x, node.nodePosition.y);
NSValue *rectObj = [NSValue valueWithCGRect:tempRec]; //transforma o cgrect num objeto
[self.gridView.fatherNodes setValue:rectObj forKey:node.nodeName];
[self.gridView setNeedsDisplay];
}
My notification method trying to update my drawing: (Not Working ! )
- (void) receiveTestNotification:(NSNotification *) notification
{
NSDictionary *userInfo = notification.userInfo;
DTINode *notificationNode = [userInfo objectForKey:#"myNode"];
NSLog(#"Im Here!");
for (DTINode *node in self.nodesToDraw)
{
NSLog(#"Here too");
if(node.nodeName == notificationNode.fatherNode)
{
CGRect temp = CGRectMake(notificationNode.nodePosition.x, notificationNode.nodePosition.y, node.nodePosition.x, node.nodePosition.y);
NSValue *tempObj = [NSValue valueWithCGRect:temp];
[self.fatherNodes setObject:tempObj forKey:notificationNode.nodeName];
[self setNeedsDisplay];
NSLog(#"Should REDRAW NOW!"); // It print this but no drawing is made!
}
}
}
I'm not pasting my drawRect here because it works, the problem is that is is not being called from inside my UIView setNeedsDisplay!
Anyone have any idea why this is not working????
After alot of testing, I saw something related to threads and the fact setNeedsDisplay should only be called in the mainThread...besides I never started a separeted thread in this classes, the class that raised the Notification was in a secondary thread...and aparently this was causing the issue...
to Solve it I just forced setNeedsDisplay to be called in the main thread..
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
[self setNeedsDisplay];
});
Swift 3:
DispatchQueue.main.async { [weak self] in
self?.setNeedsDisplay()
}
I think the correct way to use it is:
[self setNeedsDisplay:YES];
Although I always have problems to get that working :(
I have implemented the following NSOperation, to draw N custom views
- (void)main {
for (int i=0; i<N; i++) {
<< Alloc and configure customView #i >>
//(customView is a UIView with some drawing code in drawrect)
[delegate.view addSubview:customView];
}
NSLog(#"Operation completed");
}
in the drawRect method of the customView I have
- (void)drawRect {
<<Drawing code>>
NSLog(#"Drawed");
delegate.drawedViews++;
if (delegate.drawedViews==VIEWS_NUMBER) {
[delegate allViewsDrawn];
}
}
So the delegate get the notification when all the views are drawn.
The problem is that after the "Operation completed" log it takes about 5 seconds before I can see the first "Drawed" log.
Why is this happening? And generally speaking, how should I behave in order to find out which line of code is taking so much time being executed?
------ EDIT ------
Sometimes (like 1 out of 10 times) I was getting crashes doing this because I shouldn't call addsubview from the NSOperation since it is not thread-safe. So I changed it to:
[delegate.view performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(addSubview:) withObject:customView waitUntilDone:NO];
Now I don't have crashes anymore, but the process takes a very long time to be executed! Like 5 times more than before.
Why is it so slow?
To make things work properly we need to forget about NSOperation and use this "trick"
dispatch_queue_t main_queue = dispatch_get_main_queue();
dispatch_async(main_queue, ^{
[self createCustomViews];
dispatch_async(main_queue, ^{
[self addAnotherCustomViewToView];
});
});
If you are an advanced user of drawRect, you will know that of course drawRect will not actually run until "all processing is finished."
setNeedsDisplay flags a view as invalidated and the OS, and basically waits until all processing is done. This can be infuriating in the common situation where you want to have:
a view controller 1
starts some function 2
which incrementally 3
creates a more and more complicated artwork and 4
at each step, you setNeedsDisplay (wrong!) 5
until all the work is done 6
Of course, when you do the above 1-6, all that happens is that drawRect is run once only after step 6.
Your goal is for the view to be refreshed at point 5. What to do?
If I understand your question correctly, there is a simple solution to this. During your long-running routine you need to tell the current runloop to process for a single iteration (or more, of the runloop) at certain points in your own processing. e.g, when you want to update the display. Any views with dirty update regions will have their drawRect: methods called when you run the runloop.
To tell the current runloop to process for one iteration (and then return to you...):
[[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] runMode: NSDefaultRunLoopMode beforeDate: [NSDate date]];
Here's an example of an (inefficient) long running routine with a corresponding drawRect - each in the context of a custom UIView:
- (void) longRunningRoutine:(id)sender
{
srand( time( NULL ) );
CGFloat x = 0;
CGFloat y = 0;
[_path moveToPoint: CGPointMake(0, 0)];
for ( int j = 0 ; j < 1000 ; j++ )
{
x = 0;
y = (CGFloat)(rand() % (int)self.bounds.size.height);
[_path addLineToPoint: CGPointMake( x, y)];
y = 0;
x = (CGFloat)(rand() % (int)self.bounds.size.width);
[_path addLineToPoint: CGPointMake( x, y)];
x = self.bounds.size.width;
y = (CGFloat)(rand() % (int)self.bounds.size.height);
[_path addLineToPoint: CGPointMake( x, y)];
y = self.bounds.size.height;
x = (CGFloat)(rand() % (int)self.bounds.size.width);
[_path addLineToPoint: CGPointMake( x, y)];
[self setNeedsDisplay];
[[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] runMode: NSDefaultRunLoopMode beforeDate: [NSDate date]];
}
[_path removeAllPoints];
}
- (void) drawRect:(CGRect)rect
{
CGContextRef ctx = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
CGContextSetFillColorWithColor( ctx, [UIColor blueColor].CGColor );
CGContextFillRect( ctx, rect);
CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor( ctx, [UIColor whiteColor].CGColor );
[_path stroke];
}
And here is a fully working sample demonstrating this technique.
With some tweaking you can probably adjust this to make the rest of the UI (i.e. user-input) responsive as well.
Update (caveat for using this technique)
I just want to say that I agree with much of the feedback from others here saying this solution (calling runMode: to force a call to drawRect:) isn't necessarily a great idea. I've answered this question with what I feel is a factual "here's how" answer to the stated question, and I am not intending to promote this as "correct" architecture. Also, I'm not saying there might not be other (better?) ways to achieve the same effect - certainly there may be other approaches that I wasn't aware of.
Update (response to the Joe's sample code and performance question)
The performance slowdown you're seeing is the overhead of running the runloop on each iteration of your drawing code, which includes rendering the layer to the screen as well as all of the other processing the runloop does such as input gathering and processing.
One option might be to invoke the runloop less frequently.
Another option might be to optimize your drawing code. As it stands (and I don't know if this is your actual app, or just your sample...) there are a handful of things you could do to make it faster. The first thing I would do is move all the UIGraphicsGet/Save/Restore code outside the loop.
From an architectural standpoint however, I would highly recommend considering some of the other approaches mentioned here. I see no reason why you can't structure your drawing to happen on a background thread (algorithm unchanged), and use a timer or other mechanism to signal the main thread to update it's UI on some frequency until the drawing is complete. I think most of the folks who've participated in the discussion would agree that this would be the "correct" approach.
Updates to the user interface happen at the end of the current pass through the run loop. These updates are performed on the main thread, so anything that runs for a long time in the main thread (lengthy calculations, etc.) will prevent the interface updates from being started. Additionally, anything that runs for a while on the main thread will also cause your touch handling to be unresponsive.
This means that there is no way to "force" a UI refresh to occur from some other point in a process running on the main thread. The previous statement is not entirely correct, as Tom's answer shows. You can allow the run loop to come to completion in the middle of operations performed on the main thread. However, this still may reduce the responsiveness of your application.
In general, it is recommended that you move anything that takes a while to perform to a background thread so that the user interface can remain responsive. However, any updates you wish to perform to the UI need to be done back on the main thread.
Perhaps the easiest way to do this under Snow Leopard and iOS 4.0+ is to use blocks, like in the following rudimentary sample:
dispatch_queue_t main_queue = dispatch_get_main_queue();
dispatch_async(queue, ^{
// Do some work
dispatch_async(main_queue, ^{
// Update the UI
});
});
The Do some work part of the above could be a lengthy calculation, or an operation that loops over multiple values. In this example, the UI is only updated at the end of the operation, but if you wanted continuous progress tracking in your UI, you could place the dispatch to the main queue where ever you needed a UI update to be performed.
For older OS versions, you can break off a background thread manually or through an NSOperation. For manual background threading, you can use
[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(doWork) toTarget:self withObject:nil];
or
[self performSelectorInBackground:#selector(doWork) withObject:nil];
and then to update the UI you can use
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(updateProgress) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:NO];
Note that I've found the NO argument in the previous method to be needed to get constant UI updates while dealing with a continuous progress bar.
This sample application I created for my class illustrates how to use both NSOperations and queues for performing background work and then updating the UI when done. Also, my Molecules application uses background threads for processing new structures, with a status bar that is updated as this progresses. You can download the source code to see how I achieved this.
You can do this repeatedly in a loop and it'll work fine, no threads, no messing with the runloop, etc.
[CATransaction begin];
// modify view or views
[view setNeedsDisplay];
[CATransaction commit];
If there is an implicit transaction already in place prior to the loop you need to commit that with [CATransaction commit] before this will work.
In order to get drawRect called the soonest (which is not necessarily immediately, as the OS may still wait until, for instance, the next hardware display refresh, etc.), an app should idle it's UI run loop as soon as possible, by exiting any and all methods in the UI thread, and for a non-zero amount of time.
You can either do this in the main thread by chopping any processing that takes more than an animation frame time into shorter chunks and scheduling continuing work only after a short delay (so drawRect might run in the gaps), or by doing the processing in a background thread, with a periodic call to performSelectorOnMainThread to do a setNeedsDisplay at some reasonable animation frame rate.
A non-OpenGL method to update the display near immediately (which means at the very next hardware display refresh or three) is by swapping visible CALayer contents with an image or CGBitmap that you have drawn into. An app can do Quartz drawing into a Core Graphics bitmap at pretty much at any time.
New added answer:
Please see Brad Larson's comments below and Christopher Lloyd's comment on another answer here as the hint leading towards this solution.
[ CATransaction flush ];
will cause drawRect to be called on views on which a setNeedsDisplay request has been done, even if the flush is done from inside a method that is blocking the UI run loop.
Note that, when blocking the UI thread, a Core Animation flush is required to update changing CALayer contents as well. So, for animating graphic content to show progress, these may both end up being forms of the same thing.
New added note to new added answer above:
Do not flush faster than your drawRect or animation drawing can complete, as this might queue up flushes, causing weird animation effects.
Without questioning the wisdom of this (which you ought to do), you can do:
[myView setNeedsDisplay];
[[myView layer] displayIfNeeded];
-setNeedsDisplay will mark the view as needing to be redrawn.
-displayIfNeeded will force the view's backing layer to redraw, but only if it has been marked as needing to be displayed.
I will emphasize, however, that your question is indicative of an architecture that could use some re-working. In all but exceptionally rare cases, you should never need to or want to force a view to redraw immediately. UIKit with not built with that use-case in mind, and if it works, consider yourself lucky.
Have you tried doing the heavy processing on a secondary thread and calling back to the main thread to schedule view updates? NSOperationQueue makes this sort of thing pretty easy.
Sample code that takes an array of NSURLs as input and asynchronously downloads them all, notifying the main thread as each of them is finished and saved.
- (void)fetchImageWithURLs:(NSArray *)urlArray {
[self.retriveAvatarQueue cancelAllOperations];
self.retriveAvatarQueue = nil;
NSOperationQueue *opQueue = [[NSOperationQueue alloc] init];
for (NSUInteger i=0; i<[urlArray count]; i++) {
NSURL *url = [urlArray objectAtIndex:i];
NSInvocation *inv = [NSInvocation invocationWithMethodSignature:[self methodSignatureForSelector:#selector(cacheImageWithIndex:andURL:)]];
[inv setTarget:self];
[inv setSelector:#selector(cacheImageWithIndex:andURL:)];
[inv setArgument:&i atIndex:2];
[inv setArgument:&url atIndex:3];
NSInvocationOperation *invOp = [[NSInvocationOperation alloc] initWithInvocation:inv];
[opQueue addOperation:invOp];
[invOp release];
}
self.retriveAvatarQueue = opQueue;
[opQueue release];
}
- (void)cacheImageWithIndex:(NSUInteger)index andURL:(NSURL *)url {
NSData *imageData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url];
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSString *filePath = PATH_FOR_IMG_AT_INDEX(index);
NSError *error = nil;
// Save the file
if (![fileManager createFileAtPath:filePath contents:imageData attributes:nil]) {
DLog(#"Error saving file at %#", filePath);
}
// Notifiy the main thread that our file is saved.
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(imageLoadedAtPath:) withObject:filePath waitUntilDone:NO];
}
I think, the most complete answer comes from the Jeffrey Sambell's blog post 'Asynchronous Operations in iOS with Grand Central Dispatch' and it worked for me!
It's basically the same solution as proposed by Brad above but fully explained in terms of OSX/IOS concurrency model.
The dispatch_get_current_queue function will return the current queue
from which the block is dispatched and the dispatch_get_main_queue
function will return the main queue where your UI is running.
The dispatch_get_main_queue function is very useful for updating the
iOS app’s UI as UIKit methods are not thread safe (with a few
exceptions) so any calls you make to update UI elements must always be
done from the main queue.
A typical GCD call would look something like this:
// Doing something on the main thread
dispatch_queue_t myQueue = dispatch_queue_create("My Queue",NULL);
dispatch_async(myQueue, ^{
// Perform long running process
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
// Update the UI
});
});
// Continue doing other stuff on the
// main thread while process is running.
And here goes my working example (iOS 6+). It displays frames of a stored video using the AVAssetReader class:
//...prepare the AVAssetReader* asset_reader earlier and start reading frames now:
[asset_reader startReading];
dispatch_queue_t readerQueue = dispatch_queue_create("Reader Queue", NULL);
dispatch_async(readerQueue, ^{
CMSampleBufferRef buffer;
while ( [asset_reader status]==AVAssetReaderStatusReading )
{
buffer = [asset_reader_output copyNextSampleBuffer];
if (buffer!=nil)
{
//The point is here: to use the main queue for actual UI operations
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
// Update the UI using the AVCaptureVideoDataOutputSampleBufferDelegate style function
[self captureOutput:nil didOutputSampleBuffer:buffer fromConnection:nil];
CFRelease (buffer);
});
}
}
});
The first part of this sample may be found here in Damian's answer.
I'd like to offer a clean solution to the given problem.
I agree with other posters that in an ideal situation all the heavy lifting should be done in a background thread, however there are times when this simply isn't possible because the time consuming part requires lots of accessing to non thread-safe methods such as those offered by UIKit. In my case, initialising my UI is time consuming and there's nothing I can run in the background, so my best option is to update a progress bar during the init.
However, once we think in terms of the ideal GCD approach, the solution is actually a simple. We do all the work in a background thread, dividing it into chucks that are called synchronously on the main thread. The run loop will be run for each chuck, updating the UI and any progress bars etc.
- (void)myInit
{
// Start the work in a background thread.
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(0, 0), ^{
// Back to the main thread for a chunk of code
dispatch_sync(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
...
// Update progress bar
self.progressIndicator.progress = ...:
});
// Next chunk
dispatch_sync(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
...
// Update progress bar
self.progressIndicator.progress = ...:
});
...
});
}
Of course, this is essentially the same as Brad's technique, but his answer doesn't quite address the issue at hand - that of running a lot of non thread safe code while updating the UI periodically.
Joe -- if you are willing to set it up so that your lengthy processing all happens inside of drawRect, you can make it work. I just wrote a test project. It works. See code below.
LengthyComputationTestAppDelegate.h:
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface LengthyComputationTestAppDelegate : NSObject <UIApplicationDelegate> {
UIWindow *window;
}
#property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIWindow *window;
#end
LengthComputationTestAppDelegate.m:
#import "LengthyComputationTestAppDelegate.h"
#import "Incrementer.h"
#import "IncrementerProgressView.h"
#implementation LengthyComputationTestAppDelegate
#synthesize window;
#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Application lifecycle
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
// Override point for customization after application launch.
IncrementerProgressView *ipv = [[IncrementerProgressView alloc]initWithFrame:self.window.bounds];
[self.window addSubview:ipv];
[ipv release];
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
return YES;
}
Incrementer.h:
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
//singleton object
#interface Incrementer : NSObject {
NSUInteger theInteger_;
}
#property (nonatomic) NSUInteger theInteger;
+(Incrementer *) sharedIncrementer;
-(NSUInteger) incrementForTimeInterval: (NSTimeInterval) timeInterval;
-(BOOL) finishedIncrementing;
incrementer.m:
#import "Incrementer.h"
#implementation Incrementer
#synthesize theInteger = theInteger_;
static Incrementer *inc = nil;
-(void) increment {
theInteger_++;
}
-(BOOL) finishedIncrementing {
return (theInteger_>=100000000);
}
-(NSUInteger) incrementForTimeInterval: (NSTimeInterval) timeInterval {
NSTimeInterval negativeTimeInterval = -1*timeInterval;
NSDate *startDate = [NSDate date];
while (!([self finishedIncrementing]) && [startDate timeIntervalSinceNow] > negativeTimeInterval)
[self increment];
return self.theInteger;
}
-(id) init {
if (self = [super init]) {
self.theInteger = 0;
}
return self;
}
#pragma mark --
#pragma mark singleton object methods
+ (Incrementer *) sharedIncrementer {
#synchronized(self) {
if (inc == nil) {
inc = [[Incrementer alloc]init];
}
}
return inc;
}
+ (id)allocWithZone:(NSZone *)zone {
#synchronized(self) {
if (inc == nil) {
inc = [super allocWithZone:zone];
return inc; // assignment and return on first allocation
}
}
return nil; // on subsequent allocation attempts return nil
}
- (id)copyWithZone:(NSZone *)zone
{
return self;
}
- (id)retain {
return self;
}
- (unsigned)retainCount {
return UINT_MAX; // denotes an object that cannot be released
}
- (void)release {
//do nothing
}
- (id)autorelease {
return self;
}
#end
IncrementerProgressView.m:
#import "IncrementerProgressView.h"
#implementation IncrementerProgressView
#synthesize progressLabel = progressLabel_;
#synthesize nextUpdateTimer = nextUpdateTimer_;
-(id) initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
if (self = [super initWithFrame: frame]) {
progressLabel_ = [[UILabel alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(20, 40, 300, 30)];
progressLabel_.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:26];
progressLabel_.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = YES;
progressLabel_.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
[self addSubview:progressLabel_];
}
return self;
}
-(void) drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
[self.nextUpdateTimer invalidate];
Incrementer *shared = [Incrementer sharedIncrementer];
NSUInteger progress = [shared incrementForTimeInterval: 0.1];
self.progressLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"Increments performed: %d", progress];
if (![shared finishedIncrementing])
self.nextUpdateTimer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:0. target:self selector:(#selector(setNeedsDisplay)) userInfo:nil repeats:NO];
}
- (void)dealloc {
[super dealloc];
}
#end
Regarding the original issue:
In a word, you can (A) background the large painting, and call to the foreground for UI updates or (B) arguably controversially there are four 'immediate' methods suggested that do not use a background process. For the result of what works, run the demo program. It has #defines for all five methods.
Alternately per Tom Swift
Tom Swift has explained the amazing idea of quite simply manipulating the run loop. Here's how you trigger the run loop:
[[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] runMode: NSDefaultRunLoopMode beforeDate: [NSDate date]];
This is a truly amazing piece of engineering. Of course one should be extremely careful when manipulating the run loop and as many pointed out this approach is strictly for experts.
However, a bizarre problem arises ...
Even though a number of the methods work, they don't actually "work" because there is a bizarre progressive-slow-down artifact you will see clearly in the demo.
Scroll to the 'answer' I pasted in below, showing the console output - you can see how it progressively slows.
Here's the new SO question:
Mysterious "progressive slowing" problem in run loop / drawRect
Here is V2 of the demo app...
http://www.fileswap.com/dl/p8lU3gAi/stepwiseDrawingV2.zip.html
You will see it tests all five methods,
#ifdef TOMSWIFTMETHOD
[self setNeedsDisplay];
[[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop]
runMode:NSDefaultRunLoopMode beforeDate:[NSDate date]];
#endif
#ifdef HOTPAW
[self setNeedsDisplay];
[CATransaction flush];
#endif
#ifdef LLOYDMETHOD
[CATransaction begin];
[self setNeedsDisplay];
[CATransaction commit];
#endif
#ifdef DDLONG
[self setNeedsDisplay];
[[self layer] displayIfNeeded];
#endif
#ifdef BACKGROUNDMETHOD
// here, the painting is being done in the bg, we have been
// called here in the foreground to inval
[self setNeedsDisplay];
#endif
You can see for yourself which methods work and which do not.
you can see the bizarre "progressive-slow-down". Why does it happen?
you can see with the controversial TOMSWIFT method, there is actually no problem at all with responsiveness. tap for response at any time (but still the bizarre "progressive-slow-down" problem)
So the overwhelming thing is this weird "progressive-slow-down": on each iteration, for unknown reasons, the time taken for a loop decreases. Note that this applies to both doing it "properly" (background look) or using one of the 'immediate' methods.
Practical solutions?
For anyone reading in the future, if you are actually unable to get this to work in production code because of the "mystery progressive slowdown", Felz and Void have each presented astounding solutions in the other specific question.