Re: Converting existing module/objects to threads
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have inheirted some existing code, that i will explain in a moment, have needed to extend and ultimately should be able to run in threads. I've done a bunch of work with python but very little with threads and am looking for some pointers on how to implement, and if the lower level modules/objects need to be rewritten to use threading.local for all local variables. I have a module that communicates with a hardware device, which reads data off of sensors, that can only talk with one controller at a time. The controller (my module) needs to (in its simplest form) init, configure the device, request data, and write out xml, sleep, repeat. The new request is that the device needs to be queried until a condition is true, and then start requesting data. So an instance of a controller needs to be deadicated to a hardware device forever, or until the program endswhich ever comes first. This currently works in a non-threaded version, but only for one device at a time, there is a need to create a single windows(yeach) service that talks to many of these devices at once. I don't need worker threads that handle seperate portions of the entire job, i need a single application to spawn multiple processes to run through the entire communication from configure to report, sleep until the next interval time and run again. The communication could last from 1 minute to 10 minutes before it ends. 8-- not sure if I understand this correctly - but I would in this position spawn new threads, and use a global list of queues to interface between the new threads and the old comms module, still talking to one device at a time, but now time sliced. - in the comms module: for q in list_of_queues: see if anything to ask: continue if not ask it and put answer on reply queue but then I am a Philistine coder, interested only in getting the job done... - Hendrik -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Converting existing module/objects to threads
At Thursday 19/10/2006 00:01, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Consider using the asyncore module instead of threads. I think that is a good point and I am considering using asyncore/asynchat... i'm a little confused as to how i can make this model work. There is no server communication without connection from the client (me), which happens on intervals, not when data is available on a socket or when the socket is available to be written, which is always. Basically i need to determine how to trigger the asynchat process based on time. in another application that i write, i'm the server and the chat process happens every time the client wakes up...easy and perfect for asyncore That is a solution i'd like to persue, but am having a hard time getting my head around that as well. You have to write your own dispatcher (inheriting from async_chat) as any other protocol. You can call asyncore.loop whith count=1 (or 10, but not None, so it returns after a few iterations) inside your *own* loop. Inside your loop, when time comes, call your_dispatcher.push(data) so the channel gets data to be sent. Override collect_incoming_data() to get the response. You can keep your pending requests in a priority queue (sorted by time) and check the current time against the top element's time. Maybe you could successfully implement your application using threads - if none uses global variables, and no thread waits for another, it may be safe. But I prefer to avoid threads whenever possible, at least because debugging the application becomes harder. -- Gabriel Genellina Softlab SRL __ Preguntá. Respondé. Descubrí. Todo lo que querías saber, y lo que ni imaginabas, está en Yahoo! Respuestas (Beta). ¡Probalo ya! http://www.yahoo.com.ar/respuestas -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Converting existing module/objects to threads
On Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:09:11 -0300, Gabriel Genellina [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At Thursday 19/10/2006 00:01, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Consider using the asyncore module instead of threads. I think that is a good point and I am considering using asyncore/asynchat... i'm a little confused as to how i can make this model work. There is no server communication without connection from the client (me), which happens on intervals, not when data is available on a socket or when the socket is available to be written, which is always. Basically i need to determine how to trigger the asynchat process based on time. in another application that i write, i'm the server and the chat process happens every time the client wakes up...easy and perfect for asyncore That is a solution i'd like to persue, but am having a hard time getting my head around that as well. You have to write your own dispatcher (inheriting from async_chat) as any other protocol. You can call asyncore.loop whith count=1 (or 10, but not None, so it returns after a few iterations) inside your *own* loop. Inside your loop, when time comes, call your_dispatcher.push(data) so the channel gets data to be sent. Override collect_incoming_data() to get the response. You can keep your pending requests in a priority queue (sorted by time) and check the current time against the top element's time. You could also use Twisted, which provides time-based primitives in addition to supporting network multiplexing without threads. Jean-Paul -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Converting existing module/objects to threads
I have inheirted some existing code, that i will explain in a moment, have needed to extend and ultimately should be able to run in threads. I've done a bunch of work with python but very little with threads and am looking for some pointers on how to implement, and if the lower level modules/objects need to be rewritten to use threading.local for all local variables. I have a module that communicates with a hardware device, which reads data off of sensors, that can only talk with one controller at a time. The controller (my module) needs to (in its simplest form) init, configure the device, request data, and write out xml, sleep, repeat. The new request is that the device needs to be queried until a condition is true, and then start requesting data. So an instance of a controller needs to be deadicated to a hardware device forever, or until the program endswhich ever comes first. This currently works in a non-threaded version, but only for one device at a time, there is a need to create a single windows(yeach) service that talks to many of these devices at once. I don't need worker threads that handle seperate portions of the entire job, i need a single application to spawn multiple processes to run through the entire communication from configure to report, sleep until the next interval time and run again. The communication could last from 1 minute to 10 minutes before it ends. Here is the code layout in pseudocode. module.Object - controller.Main - handles all socket communications class subcontroller(controller.Main): def __init__(self,id,configurationFile): controller.Main.__init__(self) // instantiate variables and local objects that handle configuration, logic and data output def configure(self,configurationFile): //read configurationFile and configure device def process(self): while 1: //based on configuration file, query the device until condition is true and then write xml, sleep until time to repeat and run again. within controller there are 5 objects and subcontroller is a sinlge object that loads other objects from the inherited controller.System I'm trying to figure out how difficult it is going to be to convert this to a threaded application. The original controller.Main is built to talk to devices in series, never in parallel. so no objects are considered to be thread safe, but no instance of any of the objects should need to share resources with any other instance of teh same object. they would all have unique configuration files and talk to devices on unique ip/ports. on a unix system, forking,while potentially not optimal, would be a fine solution, unfortunantely this needs to run on windows. I know i have left out many details, but hopefully this is enough to at least enable some kind soles to lend an opinnion or two. many thanks jd -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Converting existing module/objects to threads
At Wednesday 18/10/2006 22:02, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This currently works in a non-threaded version, but only for one device at a time, there is a need to create a single windows(yeach) service that talks to many of these devices at once. I don't need worker threads that handle seperate portions of the entire job, i need a single application to spawn multiple processes to run through the entire communication from configure to report, sleep until the next interval time and run again. The communication could last from 1 minute to 10 minutes before it ends. Consider using the asyncore module instead of threads. -- Gabriel Genellina Softlab SRL __ Preguntá. Respondé. Descubrí. Todo lo que querías saber, y lo que ni imaginabas, está en Yahoo! Respuestas (Beta). ¡Probalo ya! http://www.yahoo.com.ar/respuestas -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Corner cases (was: Converting existing module/objects to threads)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: So an instance of a controller needs to be deadicated to a hardware device forever, or until the program endswhich ever comes first. I hope you've got tests in place for both of those conditions :-) -- \ How many people here have telekenetic powers? Raise my hand. | `\-- Emo Philips | _o__) | Ben Finney -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Converting existing module/objects to threads
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have inheirted some existing code, that i will explain in a moment, have needed to extend and ultimately should be able to run in threads. I've done a bunch of work with python but very little with threads and am looking for some pointers on how to implement, and if the lower level modules/objects need to be rewritten to use threading.local for all local variables. I have a module that communicates with a hardware device, which reads data off of sensors, that can only talk with one controller at a time. The controller (my module) needs to (in its simplest form) init, configure the device, request data, and write out xml, sleep, repeat. The new request is that the device needs to be queried until a condition is true, and then start requesting data. So an instance of a controller needs to be deadicated to a hardware device forever, or until the program endswhich ever comes first. This currently works in a non-threaded version, but only for one device at a time, there is a need to create a single windows(yeach) service that talks to many of these devices at once. I don't need worker threads that handle seperate portions of the entire job, i need a single application to spawn multiple processes to run through the entire communication from configure to report, sleep until the next interval time and run again. The communication could last from 1 minute to 10 minutes before it ends. Here is the code layout in pseudocode. module.Object - controller.Main - handles all socket communications class subcontroller(controller.Main): def __init__(self,id,configurationFile): controller.Main.__init__(self) // instantiate variables and local objects that handle configuration, logic and data output def configure(self,configurationFile): //read configurationFile and configure device def process(self): while 1: //based on configuration file, query the device until condition is true and then write xml, sleep until time to repeat and run again. within controller there are 5 objects and subcontroller is a sinlge object that loads other objects from the inherited controller.System I'm trying to figure out how difficult it is going to be to convert this to a threaded application. The original controller.Main is built to talk to devices in series, never in parallel. so no objects are considered to be thread safe, but no instance of any of the objects should need to share resources with any other instance of teh same object. they would all have unique configuration files and talk to devices on unique ip/ports. on a unix system, forking,while potentially not optimal, would be a fine solution, unfortunantely this needs to run on windows. I know i have left out many details, but hopefully this is enough to at least enable some kind soles to lend an opinnion or two. many thanks jd Taking a look at asyncore could be worthwhile, but if you want to implement it with threads, you may be able to do it this way: In your main file, from where you start the program, let's call it main: main(self) Load Required configuration spawn threads (1 for each controller) define a queue object from module queue.queue used for communication with threads enter an infinite loop that checks for the conditions once conditions are met, notify the proper thread class ControllerThread(threading.Thread): def __init__(self): define a queue here, to process messages from the main call threading.Thread.__init__(self) define method to load config for thread objects (you might want to pass an argument to init to load your configs from a file) (you might also want to pass the queue of the main program to the thread to send it messages) define methods to post messages to the queue like read, send to the machine, stop, ... define the run method that is what will be called when you start your thread. this method should enter an infinite loop that will check if something has to be done (check in the queue). hope this might help you good luck -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Converting existing module/objects to threads
Gabriel Genellina wrote: At Wednesday 18/10/2006 22:02, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This currently works in a non-threaded version, but only for one device at a time, there is a need to create a single windows(yeach) service that talks to many of these devices at once. I don't need worker threads that handle seperate portions of the entire job, i need a single application to spawn multiple processes to run through the entire communication from configure to report, sleep until the next interval time and run again. The communication could last from 1 minute to 10 minutes before it ends. Consider using the asyncore module instead of threads. -- Gabriel Genellina Softlab SRL I think that is a good point and I am considering using asyncore/asynchat... i'm a little confused as to how i can make this model work. There is no server communication without connection from the client (me), which happens on intervals, not when data is available on a socket or when the socket is available to be written, which is always. Basically i need to determine how to trigger the asynchat process based on time. in another application that i write, i'm the server and the chat process happens every time the client wakes up...easy and perfect for asyncore That is a solution i'd like to persue, but am having a hard time getting my head around that as well. __ Preguntá. Respondé. Descubrí. Todo lo que querías saber, y lo que ni imaginabas, está en Yahoo! Respuestas (Beta). ¡Probalo ya! http://www.yahoo.com.ar/respuestas -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Converting existing module/objects to threads
martdi wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have inheirted some existing code, that i will explain in a moment, have needed to extend and ultimately should be able to run in threads. I've done a bunch of work with python but very little with threads and am looking for some pointers on how to implement, and if the lower level modules/objects need to be rewritten to use threading.local for all local variables. I have a module that communicates with a hardware device, which reads data off of sensors, that can only talk with one controller at a time. The controller (my module) needs to (in its simplest form) init, configure the device, request data, and write out xml, sleep, repeat. The new request is that the device needs to be queried until a condition is true, and then start requesting data. So an instance of a controller needs to be deadicated to a hardware device forever, or until the program endswhich ever comes first. This currently works in a non-threaded version, but only for one device at a time, there is a need to create a single windows(yeach) service that talks to many of these devices at once. I don't need worker threads that handle seperate portions of the entire job, i need a single application to spawn multiple processes to run through the entire communication from configure to report, sleep until the next interval time and run again. The communication could last from 1 minute to 10 minutes before it ends. Here is the code layout in pseudocode. module.Object - controller.Main - handles all socket communications class subcontroller(controller.Main): def __init__(self,id,configurationFile): controller.Main.__init__(self) // instantiate variables and local objects that handle configuration, logic and data output def configure(self,configurationFile): //read configurationFile and configure device def process(self): while 1: //based on configuration file, query the device until condition is true and then write xml, sleep until time to repeat and run again. within controller there are 5 objects and subcontroller is a sinlge object that loads other objects from the inherited controller.System I'm trying to figure out how difficult it is going to be to convert this to a threaded application. The original controller.Main is built to talk to devices in series, never in parallel. so no objects are considered to be thread safe, but no instance of any of the objects should need to share resources with any other instance of teh same object. they would all have unique configuration files and talk to devices on unique ip/ports. on a unix system, forking,while potentially not optimal, would be a fine solution, unfortunantely this needs to run on windows. I know i have left out many details, but hopefully this is enough to at least enable some kind soles to lend an opinnion or two. many thanks jd Taking a look at asyncore could be worthwhile, but if you want to implement it with threads, you may be able to do it this way: In your main file, from where you start the program, let's call it main: main(self) Load Required configuration spawn threads (1 for each controller) define a queue object from module queue.queue used for communication with threads enter an infinite loop that checks for the conditions once conditions are met, notify the proper thread class ControllerThread(threading.Thread): def __init__(self): define a queue here, to process messages from the main call threading.Thread.__init__(self) define method to load config for thread objects (you might want to pass an argument to init to load your configs from a file) (you might also want to pass the queue of the main program to the thread to send it messages) define methods to post messages to the queue like read, send to the machine, stop, ... define the run method that is what will be called when you start your thread. this method should enter an infinite loop that will check if something has to be done (check in the queue). hope this might help you good luck thanks for the comments. the ControllerThread already extends a class. does this cause problems with classes that must extent threading.Thread. Normally it should not matter, but with threads i'm unsure. Should i just instantiate the object that i'm normally extending in the ControllerThread.__init__, and call it from the self.classthatusedtoextend.method(), or does it not matter. again, thanks. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Converting existing module/objects to threads
I am not sure if I understand you question well, but: in the __init__ of the thread subclass, you can instantiate an object of the class that makes the work or ControllerThread could extend both classes and i don't think there would be a problem. Problems in multithreading usually happen when many threads try to access the same ressource at the same time or that one thread waits for an other thread to finish, and that other thread waits for the first one to finish. The Queue module is threadsafe and it uses locking to prevent multiple threads to access it at the same time. Using Queue is a lot easier than having to manage locks by yourself. As long as you do not share data between your classes like static members, database connections, or I/0 on the same ressource, you probably won't encounter problems. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: martdi wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have inheirted some existing code, that i will explain in a moment, have needed to extend and ultimately should be able to run in threads. I've done a bunch of work with python but very little with threads and am looking for some pointers on how to implement, and if the lower level modules/objects need to be rewritten to use threading.local for all local variables. I have a module that communicates with a hardware device, which reads data off of sensors, that can only talk with one controller at a time. The controller (my module) needs to (in its simplest form) init, configure the device, request data, and write out xml, sleep, repeat. The new request is that the device needs to be queried until a condition is true, and then start requesting data. So an instance of a controller needs to be deadicated to a hardware device forever, or until the program endswhich ever comes first. This currently works in a non-threaded version, but only for one device at a time, there is a need to create a single windows(yeach) service that talks to many of these devices at once. I don't need worker threads that handle seperate portions of the entire job, i need a single application to spawn multiple processes to run through the entire communication from configure to report, sleep until the next interval time and run again. The communication could last from 1 minute to 10 minutes before it ends. Here is the code layout in pseudocode. module.Object - controller.Main - handles all socket communications class subcontroller(controller.Main): def __init__(self,id,configurationFile): controller.Main.__init__(self) // instantiate variables and local objects that handle configuration, logic and data output def configure(self,configurationFile): //read configurationFile and configure device def process(self): while 1: //based on configuration file, query the device until condition is true and then write xml, sleep until time to repeat and run again. within controller there are 5 objects and subcontroller is a sinlge object that loads other objects from the inherited controller.System I'm trying to figure out how difficult it is going to be to convert this to a threaded application. The original controller.Main is built to talk to devices in series, never in parallel. so no objects are considered to be thread safe, but no instance of any of the objects should need to share resources with any other instance of teh same object. they would all have unique configuration files and talk to devices on unique ip/ports. on a unix system, forking,while potentially not optimal, would be a fine solution, unfortunantely this needs to run on windows. I know i have left out many details, but hopefully this is enough to at least enable some kind soles to lend an opinnion or two. many thanks jd Taking a look at asyncore could be worthwhile, but if you want to implement it with threads, you may be able to do it this way: In your main file, from where you start the program, let's call it main: main(self) Load Required configuration spawn threads (1 for each controller) define a queue object from module queue.queue used for communication with threads enter an infinite loop that checks for the conditions once conditions are met, notify the proper thread class ControllerThread(threading.Thread): def __init__(self): define a queue here, to process messages from the main call threading.Thread.__init__(self) define method to load config for thread objects (you might want to pass an argument to init to load your configs from a file) (you might also want to pass the queue of the main program to the thread to send it messages) define methods to post messages to the queue like read, send to the machine, stop, ... define the run method that is what will be
Re: Converting existing module/objects to threads
Making your code run in thread mode isn't the hard part. Just add this: import threading class subcontrollerThread(threading.Thread, subcontroller): def __init__(self,id,configurationFile): threading.Thread.__init__(self) subcontroller.__init__(self,id,configurationFile) def run(self): self.process() threads=[] # Say we have 5 of the subprocesses for iThread in range(5): th=subcontrollerThread(iThread,configurationFile) threads.append(th) th.start() ...main thread do whatever... However, you have to make sure the code inside subcontroller is thread safe. That's a topic in itself. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have inheirted some existing code, that i will explain in a moment, have needed to extend and ultimately should be able to run in threads. I've done a bunch of work with python but very little with threads and am looking for some pointers on how to implement, and if the lower level modules/objects need to be rewritten to use threading.local for all local variables. I have a module that communicates with a hardware device, which reads data off of sensors, that can only talk with one controller at a time. The controller (my module) needs to (in its simplest form) init, configure the device, request data, and write out xml, sleep, repeat. The new request is that the device needs to be queried until a condition is true, and then start requesting data. So an instance of a controller needs to be deadicated to a hardware device forever, or until the program endswhich ever comes first. This currently works in a non-threaded version, but only for one device at a time, there is a need to create a single windows(yeach) service that talks to many of these devices at once. I don't need worker threads that handle seperate portions of the entire job, i need a single application to spawn multiple processes to run through the entire communication from configure to report, sleep until the next interval time and run again. The communication could last from 1 minute to 10 minutes before it ends. Here is the code layout in pseudocode. module.Object - controller.Main - handles all socket communications class subcontroller(controller.Main): def __init__(self,id,configurationFile): controller.Main.__init__(self) // instantiate variables and local objects that handle configuration, logic and data output def configure(self,configurationFile): //read configurationFile and configure device def process(self): while 1: //based on configuration file, query the device until condition is true and then write xml, sleep until time to repeat and run again. within controller there are 5 objects and subcontroller is a sinlge object that loads other objects from the inherited controller.System I'm trying to figure out how difficult it is going to be to convert this to a threaded application. The original controller.Main is built to talk to devices in series, never in parallel. so no objects are considered to be thread safe, but no instance of any of the objects should need to share resources with any other instance of teh same object. they would all have unique configuration files and talk to devices on unique ip/ports. on a unix system, forking,while potentially not optimal, would be a fine solution, unfortunantely this needs to run on windows. I know i have left out many details, but hopefully this is enough to at least enable some kind soles to lend an opinnion or two. many thanks jd -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list