# Wxruby thread - gui updates **URL:** \ **Category:** wxRuby\ **Created:** [October 28, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/wxruby-thread-gui-updates/198251 "2010-10-28T16:49:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dobai-Pataky\_BSSSSl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/77aa72/32.png) [@Dobai-Pataky\_BSSSSl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dobai-Pataky_BSSSSl)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/wxruby-thread-gui-updates/198251/1 "2010-10-28T16:49:19Z")
Hi all, i’ve a question about ruby threads and gui update events: My app consist of several folders that needs to be updated depends on what the user do. Actually all the gui updates occurs in response to the user actions into the main wxruby process. It’s just fine if the gui update takes short time but, sometimes, the gui update is a long running task and the user get stuck waiting for the process to complete. It would be nice to have gui update running on a separate thread. The first thing i thought was: ok i use the wxThread to update my long running gui task but unfortunately it’s not included in wxruby distribution. On the other side, using ruby thread in combination with Thread.pass is good for external process not involving gui updates So, what is the right way to go to update gui interface on a separate thread using wxruby? Any suggestion would greately appreciated. bio. ---
**Author:** ![biospank](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@biospank](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/biospank)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 8:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/wxruby-thread-gui-updates/198251/2 "2010-10-31T08:57:37Z")
I’m new myself but perhaps you can use EvtHandler#add\_pending\_event from a standard thread to invoke an event handler in the gui thread. You could pass information with a custom event or set up a shared mutable object beforehand. [http://wxruby.rubyforge.org/doc/evthandler.html#EvtHandler\_addpendingevent](http://wxruby.rubyforge.org/doc/evthandler.html#EvtHandler_addpendingevent) ---
**Author:** ![biospank](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@biospank](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/biospank)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/wxruby-thread-gui-updates/198251/3 "2010-11-01T15:04:13Z")
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 8:57 AM, Galen L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I’m new myself but perhaps you can use EvtHandler#add\_pending\_event from > a standard thread to invoke an event handler in the gui thread. Thank you Galen, I’ll give it a try and let you know if it work. bio. ---
**Author:** ![biospank](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@biospank](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/biospank)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 10:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/wxruby-thread-gui-updates/198251/4 "2010-11-17T10:06:25Z")
Anyone know how to solve this?: On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 4:47 PM, Fabio P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)wrote: > It’s just fine if the gui update takes short time but, sometimes, the gui > On the other side, using ruby thread in combination with Thread.pass is > good for external process not involving gui updates > > So, what is the right way to go to update gui interface on a separate > thread using wxruby? > > Any suggestion would greately appreciated. > > bio. Is it the case to consider the inclusion of WxRuby Threads into the wxruby package? Thank you. bio. ---
**Author:** ![biospank](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@biospank](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/biospank)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/wxruby-thread-gui-updates/198251/5 "2010-11-25T16:46:29Z")
Hi > ``` > Actually all the gui updates occurs in response to the user > actions into the main wxruby process. > > It's just fine if the gui update takes short time but, sometimes, > the gui update is a long running task and the user get stuck > waiting for the process to complete. > > ``` Is it strictly GUI code that takes ages to run? What you could do if there is a lot of computation involved in updating the GUI is have the process which works out what needs to be changed running in a separate thread, then posting messages to the main thread so that the actual visual update takes place incrementally whilst the GUI remains responsive. Another option is just to run the updating code in an evt\_idle loop - again, it will only happen when there is spare time to update the GUI. > ``` > It would be nice to have gui update running on a separate thread. > > The first thing i thought was: > > ok i use the wxThread to update my long running gui task but > unfortunately it's not included in wxruby distribution. > > ``` I don’t think it will do anything that Ruby (1.9) native OS threads can’t do? alex ---
**Author:** ![biospank](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@biospank](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/biospank)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/wxruby-thread-gui-updates/198251/6 "2010-11-07T17:10:24Z")
On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 2:59 PM, Fabio P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)wrote: > On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 8:57 AM, Galen L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > I’m new myself but perhaps you can use EvtHandler#add\_pending\_event from > > a standard thread to invoke an event handler in the gui thread. Unfortunately it didn’t works: EvtHandler#add\_pending\_event execute the code asynchronously (usually during the next event loop iteration) but not in a separate thread. So my problem is still there: have gui update running on a separate thread. In one of the archived posts Alex (Fenton) say this: If using 1.8, you need to manually nudge Ruby’s thread scheduler to give time to the RInotify thread. If using 1.9, this won’t be needed, but you must not call GUI update code in the non-wx thread. GUI updates must be signalled by posting a Wx::Event to the GUI loop. As i know processing an event could be done as follow: - EvtHandler#process\_event - EvtHandler#add\_pending\_event Anyone know how to signal a gui event to be processed in a separate thread? Thank you all, bio.