Python: queue without blocking

Question

I have a question about queues. I am creating a GUI with wxpython, and in the program I need to do something in a separate thread. After the thread finished, I have to modify the gui. The GUI should not block while the other thread is running. For this I thougt about queues and wrote something like this:

def do_something(gui):
    # Here it normally does something
    gui.queue.put(gui.new)

class GuiFrame(wx.Frame):

    def __init__(self, parent, id):
        wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id, title="Test")
        self.queue = Queue.Queue()
        self.calculate()

    def calculate(self):
        thread = threading.Thread(target=do_something, args=(self,))
        thread.start()
        function = self.queue.get()
        function()

    def new():
        # Here something modifies the gui
        pass

But the problem is now, that the program still blocks, I think because the queue is waiting for an item. I could start it in a new thread, but then I have to do the thing with the queue again, to execute the function in my main thread. Can anybody help me? Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

I suggest you to use wx.CallAfter(). You may find some useful examples here. Also you can use pubsub module to send messages to your GUI. Then your GUI won't block due to other threads.

Here is a nice blog that I read when I had a similar issue like yours. You can also find some other questions on SO based that may assist you to understand this concept here, here, & here