TimerQueueTimer is one of the synchronization functions supported in Win32 API. see this MSDN page.
Role of TimerQueueTimer in nutshell is: Execute a user-defined function with a user-defined argument at a user-defined time.
TimerQueue in C++ allows user to register a routine with a special queue called timer queue. The routine will be executed by a thread after delay specified by user while registering the routine. We refer this routine as timer routine.
This functionality is not directly available in C#, so tried creating one for fun!!.
In nutshell I used priority queue to solve this problem. Each element of the queue contains callback address (the timer routine), reference to callback parameter and time in future when it should be fired. The 'time' is the priority.
The logic here is to have way to wake up the timer thread from another thread. When callback is added to the queue by main thread the timer thread will waken up and it look for the top element of priority queue, calculates the difference between current time and 'time' associated with the top element then sleeps until calculated timeout exceeds. When the timer thread is awaken by timeout it starts new thread from thread pool which invokes callback.
The usage of this class is:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
TimerQueue timerQueue = new TimerQueue(10);
timerQueue.Initialize();
timerQueue.SetTimer(CallMeBack, " From callback after 5 sec", 5000);
timerQueue.SetTimer(CallMeBack, " From callback after 2 sec", 2000);
timerQueue.SetTimer(CallMeBack, " From callback after 8 sec", 8000);
Console.WriteLine("Main
application is going to wait for 15 seconds");
Thread.Sleep(15000);
Console.WriteLine("Main
application finished waiting, adding few more timer events");
timerQueue.SetTimer(CallMeBack, " From callback after 13 sec", 13000);
timerQueue.SetTimer(CallMeBack, " From callback after 9 sec", 9000);
timerQueue.SetTimer(CallMeBack, " From callback after 4 sec", 4000);
Console.ReadLine();
}
static void CallMeBack(Object state)
{
Console.WriteLine((string)state);
}
}
The TimerQueue constructor accepts one argument that defines the maximum number of timer routine you want to register with the timer queue.
TimerQueue::Initialize the method to initialize the internal data structure associated with the timer queue, you need to call this function before start registering the timer routines.
TimerQueue::SetTimer is the method you use to register a timer routine with the timer queue. This method accepts reference to the function to be invoked, argument to be passed to this function on invocation and delay in milliseconds after which the function needs to be invoked.
The output looks like:
Note: In Java script you can find 'setTimeOut' function which provide similar functionality.
Here is the definition of TimerQueue class. I think I have added enough comments to make the code understandable.
//
Represents Timer-queue that enable you to specify
//
callback functions to be called at a specified time.
public class TimerQueue
{
//
Represents an event in the event (timer) queue.
class TimerQueueEvent : ICloneable
{
// The
routine to be invoked on time-out.
public WaitCallback CallBack { get; set; }
// The
argument to be passed to routine on time-out.
public Object State { get; set; }
// The
time in future when the routine gets invoked.
public TimeSpan TimeOut { get; set; }
public object Clone()
{
return this.MemberwiseClone();
}
}
// Used
to make the heap as min heap, we store the events
// in
the queue such that event with minium time-out must
// be in
the top.
public class DoubleComparer : IComparer<double>
{
public int Compare(double value1, double value2)
{
return (int)(value1 - value2);
}
}
// EventQueue uses a Min-Heap with Time-out as priority.
Heap<double, TimerQueueEvent> eventQueue;
// Wait
handle for signalling, used by event processor thread
// to
wait for a new event to come or wait for an event to
//
time-out
//
Overhead involved in calling AutoResetEvent::Set is 1000
// nano
seconds (0.001 microseconds)
AutoResetEvent autoResetEvent = new AutoResetEvent(false);
// true
for this flag indicates user called 'Initialize' hence
// event
thread is ready for processing.
bool initialized = false;
// The
event processor thread.
Thread eventThread;
//
Used to notify the event processor thread that new event request created and queued
TimerQueueEvent newEvent;
// To
synchronize access to event (timer) queue object between main thread
// and
event processor thread.
readonly object synchNewEventLock = new object();
//
Creates new TimerQueue where queueSize is the maximum number
// of
events that can stay in the queue at any given point of
// time.
public TimerQueue(int queueSize)
{
eventQueue = new Heap<double, TimerQueueEvent>(queueSize,
new DoubleComparer(), null);
eventThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(this.EventProcessor));
}
//
Initializes the TimerQueue
public void Initialize()
{
initialized = true;
eventThread.Start();
}
// This
timer expires at the specified wait time, when the timer
//
expires, the callback function is called. waitTimeInMs is
//
amount of time in milliseconds relative to the current time
// that
must elapse before the timer invokes callBack.
public void SetTimer(WaitCallback callBack, Object state, double waitTimeInMs)
{
if (!initialized)
throw new InvalidOperationException("method Initialize
must be called before using the TimerQueue for scheduling actions");
lock (synchNewEventLock)
{
//
prepare a new event.
newEvent = new TimerQueueEvent
{
CallBack = callBack,
State = state,
TimeOut =
new TimeSpan(DateTime.Now.AddMilliseconds(waitTimeInMs).Ticks)
};
//
add the new event to timer queue
eventQueue.Push(newEvent.TimeOut.TotalMilliseconds, newEvent);
//
Signal the arrival of new event to event processor
autoResetEvent.Set();
};
}
// Returns the current time in milliseconds.
private double NowInMilliSeconds
{
get
{
return TimeSpan.FromTicks(DateTime.Now.Ticks).TotalMilliseconds;
}
}
private void EventProcessor()
{
//
EventQueue is empty now, wait for an event to come.
autoResetEvent.WaitOne();
while (true)
{
TimerQueueEvent minEvent = null;
lock (synchNewEventLock)
{
minEvent =
eventQueue.Peek();
}
if (minEvent == null)
{
// EventQueue is empty, wait for an event to come.
autoResetEvent.WaitOne();
}
else
{
// Calculate how much time we need to wait before
processing
// event with minimum time-out and wait for that much time.
double waitTimeInMs =
minEvent.TimeOut.TotalMilliseconds - NowInMilliSeconds;
if (!autoResetEvent.WaitOne((int)waitTimeInMs))
{
// wait timed-out, invoke the callback associated with the
// event we waited for.
lock (synchNewEventLock)
{
minEvent =
eventQueue.Pop();
}
ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(minEvent.CallBack,
minEvent.State);
}
// wait timed-out or wait released via signal
(ManualResetEvent::Set)
// as a result of arrival of new event.
}
}
}
};
The only remaining stuff is definition of eventQueue class (Heap<double, TimerQueueEvent>) which i will explain the next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment