Re: Question about NSRunLoop -runUntilDate:

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

On 2 Aug 2005, at 07:52, Chris Vetter wrote:

> On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 12:45:10 Richard Frith-Macdonald wrote:
> [...]
>
> > No ... runloops are meant to be thread-local, and it's not safe to
> > monitor a runloop running in one thread from an other thread.
> > If you want a notification when there are no more inputs for a
> > runloop, you can just use -runUntilDate:
> [...]
>
> That wouldn't work, because -runUntilDate: works differently from  
> what I
> expected. Instead of just setting the date when to stop running, it  
> will
> actually *wait* (aka 'block') until the given date has been reached.

No, that's not what the method does.
The -runUntilDate: method waits for the date or for there to be no  
more input sources ... whichever comes FIRST.
This is exactly what (as I understood it) you originally said you  
wanted:

# I need to create a runloop that's supposed to run for X minutes.  
Naturally,
# -runUntilDate: comes to mind. So far, so good.
#
# My question is whether there is an appropriate method to get some/ 
any kind
# of 'notification' that the runloop has stopped. I do not really  
care whether
# it stops because all input sources have been removed or the  
limitDate has
# been reached. I just need to send (or rather receive) a 'note' that  
the
# runloop stopped.


> Nevertheless thanks for your hints. Based on that I did figure out  
> how to
> solve the problem by just adding another timer to the runloop that  
> fires at
> a certain time, calling a method that will stop the runloop and  
> sending the
> note. Easy as that :-}

Setting a timer is the correct way to to something at a particular  
time ... however it won't solve the problem you specified ... how to  
get a notification when there are no more input sources in the  
runloop ... since it triggers the notification irrespective of the  
number of input sources still in the loop.

It sounds like what you actually want/need is to terminate the  
runloop at a particular time even if there are input sources waiting  
in it, and have found the best way to do that.

BTW how do you terminate your runloop?  The only way I can think of  
is to remove all input sources ... or have a loop calling - 
runMode:beforeDate: repeatedly and checking a flag after each run of  
the loop (with the timer setting that flag).