Pseudo-thread (coroutines) framework

Introduction

This module adds infrastructure for managing tasklets. In this context, a tasklet is defined as a routine that explicitly gives back control to the main program a certain points in the code, while waiting for certain events. Other terms that may be used to describe tasklets include coroutines, or cooperative threads.

The main advantages of tasklets are:

  • Eliminates the danger of unexpected race conditions or deadlocks that happen with preemptive (regular) threads;
  • Reduces the number of callbacks in your code, that sometimes are so many that you end up with spaghetti code.

The fundamental block used to create tasklets is Python's generators. Generators are objects that are defined as functions, and when called produce iterators that return values defined by the body of the function, specifically yield statements.

The neat thing about generators are not the iterators themselves but the fact that a function's state is completely frozen and restored between one call to the iterator's next() and the following one. This allows the function to return control to a program's main loop while waiting for an event, such as IO on a socket, thus allowing other code to run in the mean time. When the specified event occurs, the function regains control and continues executing as if nothing had happened.

Structure of a tasklet

At the outset, a tasklet is simply a python generator function, i.e. a function or method containing one or more yield statements. Tasklets add a couple more requirements to regular generator functions:

  1. The values contained in yield statements cannot be arbitrary (see below);
  2. After each yield that indicates events, the function kiwi.tasklet.get_event must be called to retrieve the event that just occurred.

Syntax for yield in tasklets

Inside tasklet functions, yield statements are used to suspend execution of the tasklet while waiting for certain events. Valid yield values are:

  • A single Message object, with a correctly set dest parameter. With this form, a message is sent to the indicated tasklet. When yield returns, no event is generated, so the tasklet should not call get_event.
  • One, or a sequence of:

    In this case, the tasklet is suspended until either one of the indicated events occurs. The tasklet must call get_event in this case.

Launching a tasklet

To start a tasklet, the Tasklet constructor must be used:

 from kiwi import tasklet

 def my_task(x):
     [...]

 tasklet.Tasklet(my_task(x=0))

Alternatively, kiwi.tasklet.run can be used to the same effect:

 from kiwi import tasklet
 tasklet.run(my_task(x=0))

Yet another approach is to use the @tasklet.task decorator:

 from kiwi import tasklet

 @tasklet.task
 def my_task(x):
     [...]
     raise StopIteration("return value")

 yield my_task(x=0)
 retval = tasklet.get_event().retval

Examples

Background timeout task

This example demonstrates basic tasklet structure and timeout events:

 import gobject
 from kiwi import tasklet

 mainloop = gobject.MainLoop()

 def simple_counter(numbers):
     timeout = tasklet.WaitForTimeout(1000)
     for x in xrange(numbers):
         print x
         yield timeout
         tasklet.get_event()
     mainloop.quit()

 tasklet.run(simple_counter(10))
 mainloop.run()

Message passing

This example extends the previous one and demonstrates message passing:

 import gobject
 from kiwi import tasklet

 mainloop = gobject.MainLoop()

 @tasklet.task
 def printer():
     msgwait = tasklet.WaitForMessages(accept=("quit", "print"))
     while True:
         yield msgwait
         msg = tasklet.get_event()
         if msg.name == "quit":
             return
         assert msg.name == 'print'
         print ">>> ", msg.value

 @tasklet.task
 def simple_counter(numbers, task):
     timeout = tasklet.WaitForTimeout(1000)
     for x in xrange(numbers):
         yield tasklet.Message('print', dest=task, value=x)
         yield timeout
         tasklet.get_event()
     yield tasklet.Message('quit', dest=task)
     mainloop.quit()

 task = printer()
 simple_counter(10, task)
 mainloop.run()
Class task A decorator that modifies a tasklet function to avoid the need to call tasklet.run(func()) or tasklet.Tasklet(func()).
Function get_event Return the last event that caused the current tasklet to regain control.
Function run Start running a generator as a Tasklet.
Class WaitCondition Base class for all wait-able condition objects.
Class WaitForCall An object that waits until it is called.
Class WaitForIO An object that waits for IO conditions on sockets or file descriptors.
Class WaitForTimeout An object that waits for a specified ammount of time (a timeout)
Class WaitForIdle An object that waits for the main loop to become idle
Class WaitForTasklet An object that waits for a tasklet to complete
Class WaitForSignal An object that waits for a signal emission
Class WaitForProcess An object that waits for a process to end
Class Message A message that can be received by or sent to a tasklet.
Class WaitForMessages An object that waits for messages to arrive
Class Tasklet An object that launches and manages a tasklet.
Function _normalize_list_argument returns a list of strings from an argument that can be either list of strings, None (returns []), or a single string returns ([arg])
def get_event():

Return the last event that caused the current tasklet to regain control.

Notethis function should be called exactly once after each yield that includes a wait condition.
def run(gen):

Start running a generator as a Tasklet.

Parametersgengenerator object that implements the tasklet body.
Returnsa new Tasklet instance, already running.
Notethis is strictly equivalent to calling Tasklet(gen).
def _normalize_list_argument(arg, name):

returns a list of strings from an argument that can be either list of strings, None (returns []), or a single string returns ([arg])

API Documentation for Kiwi, generated by pydoctor at 2016-01-26 21:09:06.