what thread-synch mech to use for clean exit from a thread

[MRAB]

On 15/07/2013 04:04, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Mon, 15 Jul 2013 10:27:45 +0800, Gildor Oronar wrote:
>
>> A currency exchange thread updates exchange rate once a minute. If the
>> thread faield to update currency rate for 5 hours, it should inform
>> main() for a clean exit. This has to be done gracefully, because main()
>> could be doing something delicate.
>>
>> I, a newbie, read all the thread sync tool, and wasn't sure which one to
>> use. In fact I am not sure if there is a need of thread sync, because
>> there is no racing cond. I thought of this naive way:
>>
>> class CurrencyExchange():
>>     def __init__(in_case_callback):
>>        this.callback = in_case_callback
>
> You need to declare the instance parameter, which is conventionally
> called "self" not "this". Also, your class needs to inherit from Thread,
> and critically it MUST call the superclass __init__.
>
> So:
>
> class CurrencyExchange(threading.Thread):
>      def __init__(self, in_case_callback):
>          super(CurrencyExchange, self).__init__()
>          self.callback = in_case_callback
>
> But I'm not sure that a callback is the right approach here. See below.
>
>
>>     def __run__():
>
> Likewise, you need a "self" parameter.
>
>
>>        while time.time() - self.rate_timestamp < 5*3600:
>>           ... # update exchange rate
>>           if success:

The "==" in this line should, of course, be "=":

>>              self.rate_timestamp == time.time()
>>           time.sleep(60)
>>        this.callback() # rate not updated 5 hours, a crisis
>
> I think that a cleaner way is to just set a flag on the thread instance.
> Initiate it with:
>
>      self.updates_seen = True
>
> in the __init__ method, and then add this after the while loop:
>
>      self.updates_seen = False
>
>
>
>> def main():
>>     def callback()
>>        Go_On = False
>
> I don't believe this callback will work, because it will simply create a
> local variable call "Go_On", not change the non-local variable.
>
> In Python 3, you can use the nonlocal keyword to get what you want, but I
> think a better approach is with a flag on the thread.
>
>>     agio = CurrencyExchange(in_case = callback)
>>     agio.start()
>>
>>     Go_On = True
>>     while Go_On:
>>        do_something_delicate(rate_supplied_by=agio)
>
> Change to:
>
>      while agio.updates_seen:
>          do_something_delicate...
>
>