This week I have been playing around with threading in MzScheme… I like it!

(thread (lambda () …))

is enough to create a thread and start it running.

You can use channels to pass data between threads safely with (make-channel), (channel-get <channel>) and (channel-put <channel> <data>).

Just to prove you can write Java in any language… say I wanted to have a connection manager. The API is pretty simple – I want to add connections and remove connections. Also, it might be useful to be able to start and stop the connection manager and display the number of connections. There are a number of ways I could implement this, e.g. have a global variable and synchronise access to put and get connections. Alternatively, I could have a thread that looks after connections and send messages to that thread via a channel. Just for fun, let me choose the second option.

The functionality is encapsulated and available through the following API.

(connection-manager-start)

(connection-manager-stop)

(connection-manager-clear-connections)

(connection-manager-show-connections)

(connection-add <input-port> <output-port>)

(connection-remove <input-port>)

If this was production code, I should put the code in a module and only make the above functions available using (provide…). Outside a module, we can of course by-pass the API and put messages in the channel directly.

;; Support function LOG (define (pad n) (substring (number->string (+ n 100)) 1 3)) (define (now) (let* ((date (seconds->date (current-seconds))) (secs (date-second date)) (mins (date-minute date)) (hour (date-hour date))) (format "~a:~a:~a" (pad hour) (pad mins) (pad secs)))) (define (LOG . args) (printf "[ ~a ] : " (now)) (for-each display args) (newline) (flush-output)) ;; First of all, we define a struct for the connection which has ;; an input and an output port (define-struct connection (input output)) ;; Globals for the channel, and the thread - it is a singleton obviously (define *connections-channel* (make-channel)) (define *connection-manager-thread* #f) ;; The actual manager function ;; this constantly loops and accepts messages via *connections-channel* ;; possible messages are: ;; 'stop, 'add-connection, 'remove-connection, ;; 'show-connection, 'clear-connections (define (connection-manager) (letrec ((show-command (lambda (command) (LOG "Received command [" (symbol->string command) "]"))) (show-connections (lambda (connections) (let* ((num (length connections)) (plural (not (= num 1)))) (LOG "There " (if plural "are " "is ") num " connection" (if plural "s" ""))))) (loop (lambda (connections) (let* ((command (channel-get *connections-channel*)) (head (car command))) (cond ((eq? head 'stop) (LOG "Connection manager stopping...")) ((eq? head 'add-connection) (loop (cons (cadr command) connections))) ((eq? head 'remove-connection) (let ((c (cadr command))) (LOG "Removing connection [" c "]") (loop (remove (lambda (e) (eqv? (connection-input e) c)) connections)))) ((eq? head 'show-connections) (show-connections connections) (loop connections)) ((eq? head 'clear-connections) (loop '())) (else (LOG "Error: unrecognised-command [" head "]") (loop connections))))))) (LOG "Connection manager starting...") (loop '()))) ;; connection-manager-running? checks if the connection-manager ;; is currently running - it is a belt and braces effort (define (connection-manager-running?) (and (thread? *connection-manager-thread*) (thread-running? *connection-manager-thread*))) ;; We always check if the connection-manager is running before ;; trying to send a message as (channel-put ...) waits until there ;; is a corresponding (channel-get ...) on another thread. When ;; testing at the REPL, this can cause problems. We could use an ;; asynch stream which wouldn't have this problem but I prefer ;; the explicit check (define (connection-manager-send-message message) (if (connection-manager-running?) (channel-put *connections-channel* message) (begin (LOG "WARN - Connection manager is not currently running") #f))) ;; The actual API functions. Most of these simply check if the ;; connection manager is running, and if so, put the appropriate ;; message in the channel. (define (connection-manager-start) (if (connection-manager-running?) (LOG "WARN - The connection manager is already running") (set! *connection-manager-thread* (thread connection-manager)))) (define (connection-manager-stop) (connection-manager-send-message (list 'stop)) (set! *connection-manager-thread* #f)) (define (connection-manager-clear-connections) (connection-manager-send-message (list 'clear-connections))) (define (connection-manager-show-connections) (connection-manager-send-message (list 'show-connections))) (define (connection-add input-port output-port) (connection-manager-send-message (list 'add-connection (make-connection input-port output-port)))) (define (connection-remove input-port) (connection-manager-send-message (list 'remove-connection input-port))) ;;; Connection Manager Test ;; The test... (define (test-connection-manager) (connection-manager-start) (connection-manager-clear-connections) (connection-manager-show-connections) (connection-add 1 2) (connection-manager-show-connections) (connection-remove 1) (connection-manager-show-connections) (time (begin (do ((i 0 (+ i 1))) ((= i 100000) #t) (connection-add 1 2)) (connection-manager-show-connections))) (connection-manager-stop)) ;; (test-connection-manager)