Speed of Thread

Don76 · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 3:48 pm

My thread has this code:

dim LoopSpeed = 100 '(ms)
dim UDPThreadRequestStop as boolean
Dim Now as double
dim TimeCounter as Uint32
UDPThreadRequestStop = false
Now = Microseconds
do until UDPThreadRequestStop =true
  app.doevents
  MainSemaphore.Signal
  if Microseconds-Now >= (LoopSpeed * 1000) then
    Now = Microseconds
    'Code to execute every 100ms
    if Timecounter >= 10000 then UDPThreadRequestStop = true 'Exit Loop
    'Other code....... executed in 8 ms
    TimeCounter = TimeCounter + LoopSpeed
  end if
  MainSemaphore.release
loop

The thread ends after 100 loops (100ms * 100 = 10000ms) but it ends only after 11 or 12 seconds (not 10 seconds).
If I remove the code "app.doevents", the thread works perfectly but the CPU Usage is 30%.

There is a solution to this problem?
Why does "app.doevents" need a lot of CPU time?

Note: The project contains only a thread and a window.

Bob Keeney · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 4:08 pm

DoEvents is really for Console Applications so you don't need need it, nor does it really do anything in desktop applications. Threads in RB apps are cooperative meaning that it will play nice with other threads so the timing may or may not be (probably not) be very accurate or reliable.

charonn0 · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 7:53 pm

When DoEvents is called from a Thread, it yields to the main thread so that the Event Loop can be run. This necessarily slows down any code that calls DoEvents, especially within a loop where the delay is repeated in each iteration.

timhare · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 7:55 pm

Your timing code is not very accurate and is susceptible to "drift". Instead of adding LoopSpeed to a counter, compare the total elapsed time. The code that adds LoopSpeed to TimeCounter could execute after 100ms, or 120ms, or more, allowing the total actual time to drift longer and longer.

If you want to get as close to 10 seconds as possible, use

if Microseconds - Now >= 10000000 then UDPThreadRequestStop = true

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Speed of Thread