I've got muddled - forgot which program i was originally talking about lol.
The original program I was talking about was infact using a TTimer to read
an Array from a IdTCPServer thread. Basically the program receives text to
output through the MS speech engine - Due to the fact that the thread could
not pass it directly to the ActiveX component, I had to put it into an array
and then the TTimer read it and pass it over to the component. Bad I know
but it was the only way I could find.
You've given ideas for handling it in a better manner however I'm not sure
how to actually code it. Examples would be appreciated if you have time!
Jamie
"Jamie Dale" <j.dale@turboz.net> wrote in message
news:448607d8@newsgroups.borland.com...
>>> You mean I need to rewrite my entire server?
>>>
>>> Oh no...
>> Not that much.
>>
>> Poor solution - add a critical section acquire/release around the public
>> string/array accesses so that your timer system can work safely.
>
> Can you give an example code please? - just something basic that I could
> research and expand upon!
> BTW, I don't use a timer in the server - Only the client to force it to
> read - Indy IdTCPClient doesn't have an OnExcute handler - The example I
> have (Written by Jeremy Darling) uses a system timer to force IdTCPClient
> to read.
>
>> Better solution - don't use a timer at all. Wrap your communications,
>> (ie
>> string etc), in a class and use the PostMessageAPI to send a custom
>> message
>> containing the instance reference to a form message-handler.
>
> Ok, now you lost me.. Any chance you can provide a sample?
>
>> This is not only safe, but also has no avoidable latency and will have a
>> better
>> performance than any other secondary-thread>main-thread comms mechanism.
>>
>> Polling, with timers or any other mechanism, is not necessary for
>> inter-thread comms and always adds latency and CPU waste.
>
> Basically my TCP server uses the OnExecute to read incoming/reply as
> needed. However each thread also has access to the main array of users etc
> which apparently is not a good idea as the array can become corrupt due to
> thread collision - I don't know how to get around this..
>
> Client simply uses a TTimer to try reading. Of course TCPClient not being
> a threaded component I don't need to worry much however I would be
> interested in finding a more reliable way of reading using IdTCPClient
> rather than using the timer (which currently is set to check every 100ms)
>
> All help appreciated!
