Dear Pythoneers,
I use Python heavily for scientific computing, originally for
computational physics and nowadays for computational biology. One of the
extension modules I support is pygist, a module for scientific
visualization. For this (and similar) packages to work, it is important
to have an event loop in Python.
Currently, event loops are available in Python via PyOS_InputHook, a
pointer to a user-defined function that is called when Python is idle
(waiting for user input). However, an event loop using PyOS_InputHook
has some inherent limitations, so I am thinking about how to improve
event loop support in Python.
As an example, consider the current implementation of Tkinter. What's
nice about it is that events as well as user-typed Python commands are
handled without having to call mainloop() explicitly (except on some
platforms):
"import Tkinter; Tkinter.Tk()" causes a Tk window to pop up that remains
responsive throughout. It works as follows (using Tkinter as an example;
pygist works essentially the same):
1) Importing Tkinter causes PyOS_InputHook to be set to the EventHook
function in _tkinter.c.
2) Before Python calls fgets to read the next Python command typed by
the user, it checks PyOS_InputHook and calls it if it is not NULL.
3) The EventHook function in _tkinter runs the following loop:
- Check if user input is present; if so, exit the loop
- Handle a Tcl/Tk event, if present
- Sleep for 20 milliseconds
4) Once the EventHook function returns, Python continues to read the
next user command. After executing the command, return to 2).
However, this implementation has the following problems:
1) Essentially, the event loop is a busy-wait loop with a 20 ms sleep in
between. An event loop using select() (or equivalent on Windows) will
give better performance.
2) Since this event loop runs inside Tkinter, there is no way for other
extension modules to get their messages handled. Hence, we cannot have
more than one extension module that needs an event loop. As an example,
it would be nice to have a Tkinter GUI to steer a simulation and a
(non-Tk) graphics output window to visualize the simulation.
3) Whereas PyOS_InputHook is called when Python is waiting for user
input, it is not called when Python is waiting for anything else, for
example one thread waiting for another. For example, IDLE uses two
threads, one handling the GUI and one handling the user commands. When
the second thread is waiting for the first thread (when waiting for user
input to become available), PyOS_InputHook is not being called, and no
Tkinter events are being handled. Hence, "import Tkinter; Tkinter.Tk()"
does nothing when executed from an IDLE window. Which means that our
scientific visualization software can only be run from Python started
from the command line, whereas many users (especially on Windows) will
want to use IDLE.
Now the problem I'm facing is that because of its integration with Tcl,
this cannot be fixed easily with Tkinter as the GUI toolkit for Python.
If the events to be handled were purely graphical events (move a window,
repaint a window, etc.), there would be no harm in handling these events
when waiting for e.g. another thread. With Tkinter, however, we cannot
enter EventHook while waiting for another thread:
a) because EventHook only returns if user input is available (it doesn't
wait for threads);
b) because EventHook also runs Tcl/Tk commands, and we wouldn't want to
run some Tcl commands in some thread while waiting for another thread.
Therefore, as far as I can tell, there is no way to set up a true event
loop in Python that works nicely with Tkinter, and there is no way to
have an event loop function from IDLE.
So I'd like to ask the following questions:
1) Did I miss something? Is there some way to get an event loop with
Tkinter?
2) Will Tkinter always be the standard toolkit for Python, or are there
plans to replace it at some point?
I realize that Tkinter has been an important part of Python for some
time now, and I don't expect it to be ditched just because of my event
loop problems. At the same time, event loop support could use some
improvement, so I'd like to call your attention to this issue. Tcl
actually has event loops implemented quite nicely, and may serve as an
example of how event loops may work in Python.
--Michiel.
--
Michiel de Hoon
Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Columbia University
1150 St Nicholas Avenue
New York, NY 10032
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