> > On >10.6 you can safely execute Apple scripts from a secondary thread (see > previous thread on this matter). > > Well, I just checked this using an NSOperation object which executes a > script. The operation can be alternatively executed on the main thread > scheduled by the global queue [NSOperation mainQueue] or it can be executed > on a secondary thread scheduled by any queue which you get via > [[NSOperationQueue alloc] init]. There is no noticeable difference in the > execution time of the script, which takes about 15 seconds. (As a contrived > example, the script launches TextEdit which itself opens a text file of > about several kByte. The script counts the words, builds a list of words and > an internal sort routine sorts these words and returns the sorted list.) > > The Cocoa app is just a few lines - and it doesn't require any thoughts on > how to handle the run loop -- there is simply no need for this. There is no > need for synchronization as well, unless you schedule a number of operations > concurrently which modify the same object (say a file, or whatever). > > I should note however, that a script is not "cancelable" -- it performs > "atomically" regarding the NSOperation's main method. So, in order to make > the NSOperation's main method interruptible, you need to partition your work > in a sequence of smaller actions executed by one or more scripts. Then call > them in sequence -- preferable in a loop. Before you execute the next script > you check the cancellation state of the NSOperation. Just return from -main > when someone had cancelled the operation. The operation can send messages > about the progress to its delegate (note: custom NSOperation, which defines > also an appropriate delegate protocol) in every loop as well, and may return > a result when it eventually finished. > > When the NSOperation executes on a secondary thread, the app's main thread > isn't blocked and receives and processes input without any noticeable delay. > > The most challenging task is probably to partition a given script, so that > the task becomes interruptible when executed in a NSOperation. >
Thank you Andreas, i really appreciate your work. I dont really know, why did it slow down in my case. Well now we know it should work without any slowdown :) My application has to be able to be launched in Leopard as well, therefore i've left this multithreading approach and i just run the runloop periodically inbetween "applescript chunks" during that long operation. Fortunately, it works fine so far, updating all the controls "in time". _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
