Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-18 Thread Christian Gollwitzer

Am 18.07.13 06:38, schrieb fronag...@gmail.com:

On Thursday, July 18, 2013 9:07:24 AM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:

Nope - don't use that.  Instead, post an event on the queue, and return
to the mainloop() from whence we came.
  def test_thread(self):
 if self.loader_thread.isAlive():
 self.root_window.after(100, self.test_thread)
 return





I see, though it should be noted that your method doesn't actually
block the rest of the even handler code from running, had to fiddle
with it a bit to get that to work. May I ask what exactly is the
rationale behind implementing it like this, though?



Exactly this is the goal of it. Event handlers are supposed to run in as 
short time as possible, and should never block. The reason is that you 
want the events to be processed in the order they come in, such that he 
user can still move the window, resize it, iconify/maximize etc.


That said, the code still looks odd to me. I have used the Tk with 
multithreading in the past, but directly from Tcl, and not from Python.
The basic idea is to have the background thread (which does the work) 
signal the main thread about its status, i.e. in the worker thread:


for i in range(50):
  some_odd_computation()
  signal('progress', i)

signal('finished')

and in the main thread you bind() to the events fired from the worker 
thread. That way you don't run any periodic polling.


I fear that Tkinter has a shortcoming which does not allow this pattern 
to be implemented. The tricky thing is to implement this signal() 
function, which must post an event to another thread. From the C level, 
there is Tcl_ThreadQueueEvent() which does this. It arranges for a C 
function to be run from the event loop of another thread. From Tcl, 
thread::send does this. To use it from Tkinter, it would be necessary to 
create a Tcl interpreter in the worker thread *without* loading Tk.


Some day I should dive into the innards of Tkinter to see if this is 
possible. Then you could implement signal() simply by


def signal(sig, data=''):
	tclinterp.eval('thread::send -async $mainthread {event generate . 
%s -data {%s}'%sig%data)


and in the main thread bind() to the virtual events.

Christian


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Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-18 Thread fronagzen
On Thursday, July 18, 2013 3:20:28 PM UTC+8, Christian Gollwitzer wrote:
 Am 18.07.13 06:38, schrieb fronag...@gmail.com:
  On Thursday, July 18, 2013 9:07:24 AM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
  Nope - don't use that.  Instead, post an event on the queue, and return
  to the mainloop() from whence we came.
def test_thread(self):
   if self.loader_thread.isAlive():
   self.root_window.after(100, self.test_thread)
   return
  I see, though it should be noted that your method doesn't actually
  block the rest of the even handler code from running, had to fiddle
  with it a bit to get that to work. May I ask what exactly is the
  rationale behind implementing it like this, though?
 Exactly this is the goal of it. Event handlers are supposed to run in as 
 short time as possible, and should never block. The reason is that you 
 want the events to be processed in the order they come in, such that he 
 user can still move the window, resize it, iconify/maximize etc.
 That said, the code still looks odd to me. I have used the Tk with 
 multithreading in the past, but directly from Tcl, and not from Python.
 The basic idea is to have the background thread (which does the work) 
 signal the main thread about its status, i.e. in the worker thread:
 for i in range(50):
some_odd_computation()
signal('progress', i)
 signal('finished')
 and in the main thread you bind() to the events fired from the worker 
 thread. That way you don't run any periodic polling.
 I fear that Tkinter has a shortcoming which does not allow this pattern 
 to be implemented. The tricky thing is to implement this signal() 
 function, which must post an event to another thread. From the C level, 
 there is Tcl_ThreadQueueEvent() which does this. It arranges for a C 
 function to be run from the event loop of another thread. From Tcl, 
 thread::send does this. To use it from Tkinter, it would be necessary to 
 create a Tcl interpreter in the worker thread *without* loading Tk.
 Some day I should dive into the innards of Tkinter to see if this is 
 possible. Then you could implement signal() simply by
 def signal(sig, data=''):
   tclinterp.eval('thread::send -async $mainthread {event generate . 
 %s -data {%s}'%sig%data)
 and in the main thread bind() to the virtual events.
   Christian
Ah, I see. Thank you for your help!
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Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread Dave Angel

On 07/16/2013 11:04 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

Noted on the quoting thing.

Regarding the threading, well, first, I'm not so much a programmer as someone 
who knows a bit of how to program.

And it seems that the only way to update a tkinter window is to use the 
.update() method, which is what I was experimenting with. Start up a new thread 
that just loops the .update() with a 1ms sleep until the download is done. It 
seems to work, actually.



update() is to be used when it's too awkward to return to mainloop.  In 
my second approach, you would periodically call it inside the processing 
loop.  But unless tkinter is unique among GUI's, it's unsafe to do that 
in any thread besides the GUI thread.




--
DaveA

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Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread fronagzen
On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 6:07:22 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
 On 07/16/2013 11:04 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  Noted on the quoting thing.
 
 
 
  Regarding the threading, well, first, I'm not so much a programmer as 
  someone who knows a bit of how to program.
 
 
 
  And it seems that the only way to update a tkinter window is to use the 
  .update() method, which is what I was experimenting with. Start up a new 
  thread that just loops the .update() with a 1ms sleep until the download is 
  done. It seems to work, actually.
 
 
 
 
 
 update() is to be used when it's too awkward to return to mainloop.  In 
 
 my second approach, you would periodically call it inside the processing 
 
 loop.  But unless tkinter is unique among GUI's, it's unsafe to do that 
 
 in any thread besides the GUI thread.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -- 
 
 DaveA

Ok. Well, what I'm currently doing, based on advice from this thread, is to 
create a new thread that handles the downloading, as well as updating a 
variable for text display on the GUI, and in the main thread, just after the 
thread is created, a while loop that updates the GUI while the thread is 
running.
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Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread fronagzen
On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 6:07:22 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
 On 07/16/2013 11:04 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  Noted on the quoting thing.
  Regarding the threading, well, first, I'm not so much a programmer as 
  someone who knows a bit of how to program.
  And it seems that the only way to update a tkinter window is to use the 
  .update() method, which is what I was experimenting with. Start up a new 
  thread that just loops the .update() with a 1ms sleep until the download is 
  done. It seems to work, actually.
 
 update() is to be used when it's too awkward to return to mainloop.  In 
 my second approach, you would periodically call it inside the processing 
 loop.  But unless tkinter is unique among GUI's, it's unsafe to do that 
 in any thread besides the GUI thread.
 
 -- 
 
 DaveA

Yes, based on advice from this thread, I'm doing that. From my main thread, I 
create a thread that handles the download while updating a variable that the 
mainloop displays as a text output, and in that mainloop, I have a while loop 
that updates the GUI until the downloading is done.
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Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread Dave Angel

On 07/17/2013 07:10 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 6:07:22 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:

On 07/16/2013 11:04 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:


Noted on the quoting thing.
Regarding the threading, well, first, I'm not so much a programmer as someone 
who knows a bit of how to program.
And it seems that the only way to update a tkinter window is to use the 
.update() method, which is what I was experimenting with. Start up a new thread 
that just loops the .update() with a 1ms sleep until the download is done. It 
seems to work, actually.


update() is to be used when it's too awkward to return to mainloop.  In
my second approach, you would periodically call it inside the processing
loop.  But unless tkinter is unique among GUI's, it's unsafe to do that
in any thread besides the GUI thread.

--

DaveA


Yes, based on advice from this thread, I'm doing that. From my main thread, I 
create a thread that handles the download while updating a variable that the 
mainloop displays as a text output, and in that mainloop, I have a while loop 
that updates the GUI until the downloading is done.



I can't figure out what you're really doing, since each message from you 
says something different.  You don't need a separate while loop, since 
that's exactly what app.mainloop() is.


--
DaveA

--
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Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread fronagzen
On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 7:42:45 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
 On 07/17/2013 07:10 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
  On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 6:07:22 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
  On 07/16/2013 11:04 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
  Noted on the quoting thing.
  Regarding the threading, well, first, I'm not so much a programmer as 
  someone who knows a bit of how to program.
  And it seems that the only way to update a tkinter window is to use the 
  .update() method, which is what I was experimenting with. Start up a new 
  thread that just loops the .update() with a 1ms sleep until the download 
  is done. It seems to work, actually.
  update() is to be used when it's too awkward to return to mainloop.  In
  my second approach, you would periodically call it inside the processing
  loop.  But unless tkinter is unique among GUI's, it's unsafe to do that
  in any thread besides the GUI thread.
  DaveA
  Yes, based on advice from this thread, I'm doing that. From my main thread, 
  I create a thread that handles the download while updating a variable that 
  the mainloop displays as a text output, and in that mainloop, I have a 
  while loop that updates the GUI until the downloading is done.
 I can't figure out what you're really doing, since each message from you 
 says something different.  You don't need a separate while loop, since 
 that's exactly what app.mainloop() is.
 -- 
 
 DaveA

Hm. My apologies for not being very clear. What I'm doing is this:

self.loader_thread = Thread(target=self.loadpages,
name=loader_thread)
self.loader_thread.start()
while self.loader_thread.isAlive():
self.root_window.update()
sleep(0.05)

Where loadpages is a function defined elsewhere.
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Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread Dave Angel

On 07/17/2013 09:18 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 7:42:45 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:

On 07/17/2013 07:10 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 6:07:22 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:

On 07/16/2013 11:04 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

Noted on the quoting thing.
Regarding the threading, well, first, I'm not so much a programmer as someone 
who knows a bit of how to program.
And it seems that the only way to update a tkinter window is to use the 
.update() method, which is what I was experimenting with. Start up a new thread 
that just loops the .update() with a 1ms sleep until the download is done. It 
seems to work, actually.

update() is to be used when it's too awkward to return to mainloop.  In
my second approach, you would periodically call it inside the processing
loop.  But unless tkinter is unique among GUI's, it's unsafe to do that
in any thread besides the GUI thread.
DaveA

Yes, based on advice from this thread, I'm doing that. From my main thread, I 
create a thread that handles the download while updating a variable that the 
mainloop displays as a text output, and in that mainloop, I have a while loop 
that updates the GUI until the downloading is done.

I can't figure out what you're really doing, since each message from you
says something different.  You don't need a separate while loop, since
that's exactly what app.mainloop() is.
--

DaveA


Hm. My apologies for not being very clear. What I'm doing is this:

 self.loader_thread = Thread(target=self.loadpages,
 name=loader_thread)
 self.loader_thread.start()
 while self.loader_thread.isAlive():
 self.root_window.update()
 sleep(0.05)

Where loadpages is a function defined elsewhere.



Presumably this fragment is from a method of some class you've written. 
 Is it an event handler, or is this happening before you finish setting 
up the GUI?  Somewhere at top-level, you're supposed to fall into a call 
to mainloop(), which doesn't return till the user cancels the app.




--
DaveA

--
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Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread Peter Otten
fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hm. My apologies for not being very clear. What I'm doing is this:
 
 self.loader_thread = Thread(target=self.loadpages,
 name=loader_thread)
 self.loader_thread.start()
 while self.loader_thread.isAlive():
 self.root_window.update()
 sleep(0.05)
 
 Where loadpages is a function defined elsewhere.

I suppose the while loop runs in the main thread? That's not a good idea 
with Tkinter (and GUIs in general). I suggest using

http://effbot.org/zone/tkinter-threads.htm

as a template. The main difference is that instead of your while-loop and 
sleep() it calls the after() method which keeps tkinter in control so that 
it can still respond to events.

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Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread Michael Torrie
On 07/17/2013 05:08 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
 Ok. Well, what I'm currently doing, based on advice from this thread,
 is to create a new thread that handles the downloading, as well as
 updating a variable for text display on the GUI, and in the main
 thread, just after the thread is created, a while loop that updates
 the GUI while the thread is running.

Not sure what you mean by while loop.  In an event-driven paradigm,
one technique would be to set a timeout event that fires every so many
ms.  Then in the event callback, you update the widget according to the
new value of the variable.  At least this is how i'd do it in Qt or GTK.
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Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread fronagzen
On Thursday, July 18, 2013 1:38:34 AM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
 On 07/17/2013 09:18 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
  On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 7:42:45 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
  On 07/17/2013 07:10 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
  On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 6:07:22 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
  On 07/16/2013 11:04 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
  Noted on the quoting thing.
  Regarding the threading, well, first, I'm not so much a programmer as 
  someone who knows a bit of how to program.
  And it seems that the only way to update a tkinter window is to use the 
  .update() method, which is what I was experimenting with. Start up a 
  new thread that just loops the .update() with a 1ms sleep until the 
  download is done. It seems to work, actually.
  update() is to be used when it's too awkward to return to mainloop.  In
  my second approach, you would periodically call it inside the processing
  loop.  But unless tkinter is unique among GUI's, it's unsafe to do that
  in any thread besides the GUI thread.
  DaveA
 
  Yes, based on advice from this thread, I'm doing that. From my main 
  thread, I create a thread that handles the download while updating a 
  variable that the mainloop displays as a text output, and in that 
  mainloop, I have a while loop that updates the GUI until the downloading 
  is done.
  I can't figure out what you're really doing, since each message from you
  says something different.  You don't need a separate while loop, since
  that's exactly what app.mainloop() is.
  --
 
  DaveA
 
  Hm. My apologies for not being very clear. What I'm doing is this:
   self.loader_thread = Thread(target=self.loadpages,
   name=loader_thread)
   self.loader_thread.start()
   while self.loader_thread.isAlive():
   self.root_window.update()
   sleep(0.05)
  Where loadpages is a function defined elsewhere.
 
 Presumably this fragment is from a method of some class you've written. 
   Is it an event handler, or is this happening before you finish setting 
 up the GUI?  Somewhere at top-level, you're supposed to fall into a call 
 to mainloop(), which doesn't return till the user cancels the app.
 -- 
 
 DaveA
This is, indeed, an event handler from a class for my GUI. My entire GUI is a 
bit large, so I'll not copy the entire thing here, but it roughly goes:

class GUI(object):
def __init__(self):
[stuff]

def init_button(self):
self.execute = ttk.Button(self.input_frame, text='Tally',
  command=self.execute_now)
self.execute.grid(column=1, row=2, sticky=(N, S, E, W), columnspan=4)

def execute_now(self):
[stuff]
self.loader_thread = Thread(target=self.loadpages,
name=loader_thread)
self.loader_thread.start()
while self.loader_thread.isAlive():
self.root_window.update()
sleep(0.05)
[morestuff]

if __name__ == __main__:
APP = GUI()
APP.root_window.mainloop()
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Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread Dave Angel

On 07/17/2013 08:44 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

On Thursday, July 18, 2013 1:38:34 AM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:

On 07/17/2013 09:18 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 7:42:45 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:

On 07/17/2013 07:10 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 6:07:22 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:

On 07/16/2013 11:04 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

Noted on the quoting thing.
Regarding the threading, well, first, I'm not so much a programmer as someone 
who knows a bit of how to program.
And it seems that the only way to update a tkinter window is to use the 
.update() method, which is what I was experimenting with. Start up a new thread 
that just loops the .update() with a 1ms sleep until the download is done. It 
seems to work, actually.

update() is to be used when it's too awkward to return to mainloop.  In
my second approach, you would periodically call it inside the processing
loop.  But unless tkinter is unique among GUI's, it's unsafe to do that
in any thread besides the GUI thread.
DaveA



Yes, based on advice from this thread, I'm doing that. From my main thread, I 
create a thread that handles the download while updating a variable that the 
mainloop displays as a text output, and in that mainloop, I have a while loop 
that updates the GUI until the downloading is done.

I can't figure out what you're really doing, since each message from you
says something different.  You don't need a separate while loop, since
that's exactly what app.mainloop() is.
--

DaveA


Hm. My apologies for not being very clear. What I'm doing is this:
  self.loader_thread = Thread(target=self.loadpages,
  name=loader_thread)
  self.loader_thread.start()
  while self.loader_thread.isAlive():
  self.root_window.update()
  sleep(0.05)
Where loadpages is a function defined elsewhere.


Presumably this fragment is from a method of some class you've written.
   Is it an event handler, or is this happening before you finish setting
up the GUI?  Somewhere at top-level, you're supposed to fall into a call
to mainloop(), which doesn't return till the user cancels the app.
--

DaveA

This is, indeed, an event handler from a class for my GUI. My entire GUI is a 
bit large, so I'll not copy the entire thing here, but it roughly goes:

class GUI(object):
 def __init__(self):
 [stuff]

 def init_button(self):
 self.execute = ttk.Button(self.input_frame, text='Tally',
   command=self.execute_now)
 self.execute.grid(column=1, row=2, sticky=(N, S, E, W), columnspan=4)

 def execute_now(self):
 [stuff]
 self.loader_thread = Thread(target=self.loadpages,
 name=loader_thread)
 self.loader_thread.start()


   self.root_window.after(100, self.test_thread)
   return


 while self.loader_thread.isAlive():
 self.root_window.update()


Nope - don't use that.  Instead, post an event on the queue, and return 
to the mainloop() from whence we came.


def test_thread(self):
   if self.loader_thread.isAlive():
   self.root_window.after(100, self.test_thread)
   return
   [morestuff]


 sleep(0.05)
 [morestuff]

if __name__ == __main__:
 APP = GUI()
 APP.root_window.mainloop()



I probably don't have it quite right, but hopefully you'll get the idea. 
 self.test_thread() is now a new event that will get repeatedly 
invoked, to do the check on the thread status.  It returns rapidly 
unless the condition has occurred.


There are other things that should be done, like blocking the specific 
events that would create duplicate threads.


--
DaveA

--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list


Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread fronagzen
On Thursday, July 18, 2013 9:07:24 AM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
 On 07/17/2013 08:44 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
  On Thursday, July 18, 2013 1:38:34 AM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
  On 07/17/2013 09:18 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
  On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 7:42:45 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
  On 07/17/2013 07:10 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
  On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 6:07:22 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
  On 07/16/2013 11:04 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
  Noted on the quoting thing.
  Regarding the threading, well, first, I'm not so much a programmer as 
  someone who knows a bit of how to program.
  And it seems that the only way to update a tkinter window is to use 
  the .update() method, which is what I was experimenting with. Start 
  up a new thread that just loops the .update() with a 1ms sleep until 
  the download is done. It seems to work, actually.
  update() is to be used when it's too awkward to return to mainloop.  In
  my second approach, you would periodically call it inside the 
  processing
  loop.  But unless tkinter is unique among GUI's, it's unsafe to do that
  in any thread besides the GUI thread.
  DaveA
  Yes, based on advice from this thread, I'm doing that. From my main 
  thread, I create a thread that handles the download while updating a 
  variable that the mainloop displays as a text output, and in that 
  mainloop, I have a while loop that updates the GUI until the 
  downloading is done.
  I can't figure out what you're really doing, since each message from you
  says something different.  You don't need a separate while loop, since
  that's exactly what app.mainloop() is.
  --
  DaveA
 
  Hm. My apologies for not being very clear. What I'm doing is this:
self.loader_thread = Thread(target=self.loadpages,
name=loader_thread)
self.loader_thread.start()
while self.loader_thread.isAlive():
self.root_window.update()
sleep(0.05)
  Where loadpages is a function defined elsewhere.

  Presumably this fragment is from a method of some class you've written.
 Is it an event handler, or is this happening before you finish setting
  up the GUI?  Somewhere at top-level, you're supposed to fall into a call
  to mainloop(), which doesn't return till the user cancels the app.
  --
  DaveA
 
  This is, indeed, an event handler from a class for my GUI. My entire GUI is 
  a bit large, so I'll not copy the entire thing here, but it roughly goes:
  class GUI(object):
   def __init__(self):
   [stuff]
   def init_button(self):
   self.execute = ttk.Button(self.input_frame, text='Tally',
 command=self.execute_now)
   self.execute.grid(column=1, row=2, sticky=(N, S, E, W), 
  columnspan=4)
   def execute_now(self):
   [stuff]
   self.loader_thread = Thread(target=self.loadpages,
   name=loader_thread)
   self.loader_thread.start()
 self.root_window.after(100, self.test_thread)
 return
   while self.loader_thread.isAlive():
   self.root_window.update()
 Nope - don't use that.  Instead, post an event on the queue, and return 
 to the mainloop() from whence we came.
  def test_thread(self):
 if self.loader_thread.isAlive():
 self.root_window.after(100, self.test_thread)
 return
 [morestuff]
   sleep(0.05)
   [morestuff]
  if __name__ == __main__:
   APP = GUI()
   APP.root_window.mainloop()
 I probably don't have it quite right, but hopefully you'll get the idea. 
   self.test_thread() is now a new event that will get repeatedly 
 invoked, to do the check on the thread status.  It returns rapidly 
 unless the condition has occurred.
 There are other things that should be done, like blocking the specific 
 events that would create duplicate threads.
 -- 
 
 DaveA

I see, though it should be noted that your method doesn't actually block the 
rest of the even handler code from running, had to fiddle with it a bit to get 
that to work. May I ask what exactly is the rationale behind implementing it 
like this, though?
-- 
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list


Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-17 Thread Dave Angel

On 07/18/2013 12:38 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

On Thursday, July 18, 2013 9:07:24 AM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:

On 07/17/2013 08:44 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

On Thursday, July 18, 2013 1:38:34 AM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:

On 07/17/2013 09:18 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 7:42:45 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:

On 07/17/2013 07:10 AM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 6:07:22 PM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:

On 07/16/2013 11:04 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

Noted on the quoting thing.
Regarding the threading, well, first, I'm not so much a programmer as someone 
who knows a bit of how to program.
And it seems that the only way to update a tkinter window is to use the 
.update() method, which is what I was experimenting with. Start up a new thread 
that just loops the .update() with a 1ms sleep until the download is done. It 
seems to work, actually.

update() is to be used when it's too awkward to return to mainloop.  In
my second approach, you would periodically call it inside the processing
loop.  But unless tkinter is unique among GUI's, it's unsafe to do that
in any thread besides the GUI thread.
DaveA

Yes, based on advice from this thread, I'm doing that. From my main thread, I 
create a thread that handles the download while updating a variable that the 
mainloop displays as a text output, and in that mainloop, I have a while loop 
that updates the GUI until the downloading is done.

I can't figure out what you're really doing, since each message from you
says something different.  You don't need a separate while loop, since
that's exactly what app.mainloop() is.
--
DaveA



Hm. My apologies for not being very clear. What I'm doing is this:
   self.loader_thread = Thread(target=self.loadpages,
   name=loader_thread)
   self.loader_thread.start()
   while self.loader_thread.isAlive():
   self.root_window.update()
   sleep(0.05)
Where loadpages is a function defined elsewhere.



Presumably this fragment is from a method of some class you've written.
Is it an event handler, or is this happening before you finish setting
up the GUI?  Somewhere at top-level, you're supposed to fall into a call
to mainloop(), which doesn't return till the user cancels the app.
--
DaveA



This is, indeed, an event handler from a class for my GUI. My entire GUI is a 
bit large, so I'll not copy the entire thing here, but it roughly goes:
class GUI(object):
  def __init__(self):
  [stuff]
  def init_button(self):
  self.execute = ttk.Button(self.input_frame, text='Tally',
command=self.execute_now)
  self.execute.grid(column=1, row=2, sticky=(N, S, E, W), columnspan=4)
  def execute_now(self):
  [stuff]
  self.loader_thread = Thread(target=self.loadpages,
  name=loader_thread)
  self.loader_thread.start()

 self.root_window.after(100, self.test_thread)
 return

  while self.loader_thread.isAlive():
  self.root_window.update()

Nope - don't use that.  Instead, post an event on the queue, and return
to the mainloop() from whence we came.
  def test_thread(self):
 if self.loader_thread.isAlive():
 self.root_window.after(100, self.test_thread)
 return
 [morestuff]

  sleep(0.05)
  [morestuff]
if __name__ == __main__:
  APP = GUI()
  APP.root_window.mainloop()

I probably don't have it quite right, but hopefully you'll get the idea.
   self.test_thread() is now a new event that will get repeatedly
invoked, to do the check on the thread status.  It returns rapidly
unless the condition has occurred.
There are other things that should be done, like blocking the specific
events that would create duplicate threads.
--

DaveA


I see, though it should be noted that your method doesn't actually block the 
rest of the even handler code from running, had to fiddle with it a bit to get 
that to work. May I ask what exactly is the rationale behind implementing it 
like this, though?



Simply because your goal is normally to have other events working.  For 
example, a user might resize the window while you're doing your network 
stuff.  This way all events are fired from the one place, and you can 
uniformly decide which ones to block for the special cases.  And you 
don't wind up with the GUI's internal code in a knot.  As I said at the 
beginning, I'm not that familiar with tkinter, but the same principles 
apply to all of them.


Sometimes these variations are equivalent, and sometimes there are 
problems.  For example, you might be testing on Linux, and then later 
when you try it on Windows, suddenly things don't work.  The closer you 
can conform to the standard way of using the GUI manager, the less 
likely you are to come up 

Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-16 Thread David Hutto
I've had a similar problem with a tkinter/3D app. right now I'm looking
toward Blender, and the Python API, but there is also wxpython, and the
usual python's library gtk.

There is also matplotlib with the ion window. but, I, personally, am going
to go with Blender, and Python API, with maybe a few other imports, and if
ctypes...includes if I remember C correctly without reference at this time
the usages of returned data type values
for you to utilize.


But for the plainer answer I'd go with wxpython if you decide not to use a
different library, and for a GDK, Blend


On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 8:57 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hm. So I've written a GUI in tkinter. I've found two performance issues, I
 was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

 Firstly, I'm using an image as a border, namely:

 from tkinter import *
 from tkinter import ttk

 root_frame = Tk()
 root_frame.configure(background = 'black')

 img1 = PhotoImage(frameBorder, data=
R0lGODlhQABAAMIHABkfLTMrMzMrZjNVZjNVmUFchywAQABD9A
i63P4wykmrvTjrzbu/hlGMZGmeaBp2QmgIQSzPdG3fbShk+u3/wFkONAgaj7aBoWIo
Ip9P5aQFrSJfkpd1C2xluWDfEhIKm2mrh/bM9qrZ8MDYYYiz54263Yxn6PdgfQt/gF
uCCoSFVYcAiYpPjI6PR5GTVpWWUJiZV2SckJ6flKGiQZulP6eoN6qrNa2uM7CxMbO0
trG4rrqrvKi+pcCiwp/EnMaZyJbKk8yPzorQhdKA1HuRMLQ0bnSSuYyN2mhZ2eLcD1

  TicjtZ3sPgfu7J8A0EBOWfQxg5a4/87BtcCBxIsKDBgh8SKlzIsKHDhxAVJgAAOw==)

 style = ttk.Style()
 style.element_create(RoundedFrame, image, frameBorder,
   border=30, sticky=nsew)
 style.layout(RoundedFrame, [(RoundedFrame, {sticky: nsew})])

 input_frame = ttk.Frame(root_frame,
 style = RoundedFrame,
 padding = 15,
 width = 640,
 height = 180
 )
 input_frame.pack(padx=10, pady=10)

 This works, yes, but is annoyingly laggy on an older computer when I try
 to move the window around. I figure it's because the program has to keep
 redrawing the image border when dragged around, and is exacerbated by the
 fact that I have two of the imageborder frames in my application. How can I
 remedy this? I've tried using a hard-drawn image on a Canvas instead of the
 image border, but it's suboptimal because that prevents resizing the window.


 The other performance issue I've found is that when the logic is running,
 the app doesn't redraw. Ordinarily this would be acceptable, but as part of
 my program, it loads data from a website, and during the load, the window
 completely freezes up and doesn't respond until the download is done; as I
 understand it, tkinter doesn't redraw until it is forced to by .update() or
 control is given back to the mainloop. How can I force a more frequent
 redraw rate?
 --
 http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list




-- 
Best Regards,
David Hutto
*CEO:* *http://www.hitwebdevelopment.com*
-- 
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list


Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-16 Thread David Hutto
On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 9:32 PM, David Hutto dwightdhu...@gmail.com wrote:

 I've had a similar problem with a tkinter/3D app. right now I'm looking
 toward Blender, and the Python API, but there is also wxpython, and the
 usual python's library gtk.

 There is also matplotlib with the ion window. but, I, personally, am going
 to go with Blender, and Python API, with maybe a few other imports, and if
 ctypes...includes if I remember C correctly without reference at this time
 the usages of returned data type values
 for you to utilize.


 But for the plainer answer I'd go with wxpython if you decide not to use a
 different library, and for a GDK, Blend


 On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 8:57 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hm. So I've written a GUI in tkinter. I've found two performance issues,
 I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

 Firstly, I'm using an image as a border, namely:

 from tkinter import *
 from tkinter import ttk

 root_frame = Tk()
 root_frame.configure(background = 'black')

 img1 = PhotoImage(frameBorder, data=
R0lGODlhQABAAMIHABkfLTMrMzMrZjNVZjNVmUFchywAQABD9A
i63P4wykmrvTjrzbu/hlGMZGmeaBp2QmgIQSzPdG3fbShk+u3/wFkONAgaj7aBoWIo
Ip9P5aQFrSJfkpd1C2xluWDfEhIKm2mrh/bM9qrZ8MDYYYiz54263Yxn6PdgfQt/gF
uCCoSFVYcAiYpPjI6PR5GTVpWWUJiZV2SckJ6flKGiQZulP6eoN6qrNa2uM7CxMbO0
trG4rrqrvKi+pcCiwp/EnMaZyJbKk8yPzorQhdKA1HuRMLQ0bnSSuYyN2mhZ2eLcD1

  TicjtZ3sPgfu7J8A0EBOWfQxg5a4/87BtcCBxIsKDBgh8SKlzIsKHDhxAVJgAAOw==)

 style = ttk.Style()
 style.element_create(RoundedFrame, image, frameBorder,
   border=30, sticky=nsew)
 style.layout(RoundedFrame, [(RoundedFrame, {sticky: nsew})])

 input_frame = ttk.Frame(root_frame,
 style = RoundedFrame,
 padding = 15,
 width = 640,
 height = 180
 )
 input_frame.pack(padx=10, pady=10)

 This works, yes, but is annoyingly laggy on an older computer when I try
 to move the window around. I figure it's because the program has to keep
 redrawing the image border when dragged around, and is exacerbated by the
 fact that I have two of the imageborder frames in my application. How can I
 remedy this? I've tried using a hard-drawn image on a Canvas instead of the
 image border, but it's suboptimal because that prevents resizing the window.


 The other performance issue I've found is that when the logic is running,
 the app doesn't redraw. Ordinarily this would be acceptable, but as part of
 my program, it loads data from a website, and during the load, the window
 completely freezes up and doesn't respond until the download is done; as I
 understand it, tkinter doesn't redraw until it is forced to by .update() or
 control is given back to the mainloop. How can I force a more frequent
 redraw rate?
 --
 http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list



 I've had a similar problem with a tkinter/3D app. right now I'm looking
 toward Blender, and the Python API, but there is also wxpython, and the
 usual python's library gtk.

 There is also matplotlib with the ion window. but, I, personally, am going
 to go with Blender, and Python API, with maybe a few other imports, and if
 ctypes...includes if I remember C correctly without reference at this time
 the usages of returned data type values
 for you to utilize.


 But for the plainer answer I'd go with wxpython if you decide not to use a
 different library, and for a GDK, Blender.




-- 
Best Regards,
David Hutto
*CEO:* *http://www.hitwebdevelopment.com*
-- 
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list


Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-16 Thread Dave Angel

On 07/16/2013 08:57 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

Hm. So I've written a GUI in tkinter. I've found two performance issues, I was 
hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

Firstly, I'm using an image as a border, namely:


SNIP


This works, yes, but is annoyingly laggy on an older computer when I try to 
move the window around. I figure it's because the program has to keep redrawing 
the image border when dragged around, and is exacerbated by the fact that I 
have two of the imageborder frames in my application. How can I remedy this? 
I've tried using a hard-drawn image on a Canvas instead of the image border, 
but it's suboptimal because that prevents resizing the window.



This part I can't help with, as I'm not that familiar with tkinter in 
particular.  If I had to guess an approach, I'd tell you to create an 
object that represents the scaled border image, and then when it moves, 
you just reblit it.  And if/when the scale changes, you then recreate 
the object at the new scale.  Most of the time you won't be scaling.


But what that means in tkinter calls, I don't know and don't have time 
tonight to figure out.




The other performance issue I've found is that when the logic is running, the 
app doesn't redraw. Ordinarily this would be acceptable, but as part of my 
program, it loads data from a website, and during the load, the window 
completely freezes up and doesn't respond until the download is done; as I 
understand it, tkinter doesn't redraw until it is forced to by .update() or 
control is given back to the mainloop. How can I force a more frequent redraw 
rate?



Tkinter, like every other GUI I know of, is event driven.  You're not 
intended to do logic is running kinds of events.  Break up larger 
problems into little tasks, and daisy chain them, returning to the event 
loop after each little piece.


A second approach that works with some GUI's is to fire up the event 
loop at periodic intervals in your long function;  get it to do a few 
other events and then return to you.  This isn't recommended usually 
because it can get very messy.  And it may not even be possible in tkinter.


Third approach is to start another thread to do the logic is running. 
 Make sure that thread never calls any GUI stuff, but just updates 
values that can be seen by the main thread and its GUI stuff.  When 
you're done, post a message to the GUI to tell it to redraw whichever 
parts are now changed.



--
DaveA

--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list


Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-16 Thread fronagzen
On Wednesday, July 17, 2013 9:40:15 AM UTC+8, Dave Angel wrote:
 On 07/16/2013 08:57 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  Hm. So I've written a GUI in tkinter. I've found two performance issues, I 
  was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.
 
 
 
  Firstly, I'm using an image as a border, namely:
 
 
 
  SNIP
 
 
 
  This works, yes, but is annoyingly laggy on an older computer when I try to 
  move the window around. I figure it's because the program has to keep 
  redrawing the image border when dragged around, and is exacerbated by the 
  fact that I have two of the imageborder frames in my application. How can I 
  remedy this? I've tried using a hard-drawn image on a Canvas instead of the 
  image border, but it's suboptimal because that prevents resizing the window.
 
 
 
 
 
 This part I can't help with, as I'm not that familiar with tkinter in 
 
 particular.  If I had to guess an approach, I'd tell you to create an 
 
 object that represents the scaled border image, and then when it moves, 
 
 you just reblit it.  And if/when the scale changes, you then recreate 
 
 the object at the new scale.  Most of the time you won't be scaling.
 
 
 
 But what that means in tkinter calls, I don't know and don't have time 
 
 tonight to figure out.
 
 
 
 
 
  The other performance issue I've found is that when the logic is running, 
  the app doesn't redraw. Ordinarily this would be acceptable, but as part of 
  my program, it loads data from a website, and during the load, the window 
  completely freezes up and doesn't respond until the download is done; as I 
  understand it, tkinter doesn't redraw until it is forced to by .update() or 
  control is given back to the mainloop. How can I force a more frequent 
  redraw rate?
 
 
 
 
 
 Tkinter, like every other GUI I know of, is event driven.  You're not 
 
 intended to do logic is running kinds of events.  Break up larger 
 
 problems into little tasks, and daisy chain them, returning to the event 
 
 loop after each little piece.
 
 
 
 A second approach that works with some GUI's is to fire up the event 
 
 loop at periodic intervals in your long function;  get it to do a few 
 
 other events and then return to you.  This isn't recommended usually 
 
 because it can get very messy.  And it may not even be possible in tkinter.
 
 
 
 Third approach is to start another thread to do the logic is running. 
 
   Make sure that thread never calls any GUI stuff, but just updates 
 
 values that can be seen by the main thread and its GUI stuff.  When 
 
 you're done, post a message to the GUI to tell it to redraw whichever 
 
 parts are now changed.
 
 
 
 
 
 -- 
 
 DaveA

Thanks for the responses.

Yeah, I understand that tkinter isn't really designed for 'logic is running' 
style issues, but I do need to load that data, and sometimes, that can take a 
while. I am in fact experimenting with threading another process to update the 
window, yes.
-- 
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list


Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-16 Thread Dave Angel

On 07/16/2013 09:51 PM, fronag...@gmail.com wrote:

If you are going to use googlegroups, then at least bypass its worst 
bugs, like double-spacing everything it quotes.

 http://wiki.python.org/moin/GoogleGroupsPython



Yeah, I understand that tkinter isn't really designed for 'logic is running' 
style issues, but I do need to load that data, and sometimes, that can take a 
while. I am in fact experimenting

  with threading another process to update the window, yes.
- ----




Those three words/phrases strike a real discord.

Multithreading is not the same as multiprocessing.  And you probably 
don't ever want to update a window with a different thread than the one 
that created it.  Not that it can't be done, at least in some languages, 
but that it's real rat-hole of problems.


The extra thread or process (with different problems to each) should be 
doing the logic is running but NOT the gui.




--
DaveA

--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list


Re: tkinter redraw rates

2013-07-16 Thread fronagzen
Noted on the quoting thing.

Regarding the threading, well, first, I'm not so much a programmer as someone 
who knows a bit of how to program.

And it seems that the only way to update a tkinter window is to use the 
.update() method, which is what I was experimenting with. Start up a new thread 
that just loops the .update() with a 1ms sleep until the download is done. It 
seems to work, actually.
-- 
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