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Crash course in java threads

Hi,

Can someone provide me with a snippet or good link to show how to create a 'worker' thread in java. I don't know if that terminology is used, Im takin it from my C++ stuff. I would like to do the following:

1) Start the main application
2) Create a new thread - have it open a local file.
3) The new thread notifies the main thread that it's terminating
4) The main thread prints something like "loading....." while it's waiting for the new thread to finish.

Thanks

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Mick Barry

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Mick Barry

Sounds like the SwingWorker is what you need.

CEHJ

Have a look at SwingWorker in 1.6

CEHJ

http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/javax/swing/SwingWorker.html

DJ_AM_Juicebox

ASKER

Yeah but I read swing was a huge download for the end user? I want my applet to be lightweight, isn't there any thread stuff built into the java core? I really have no idea what I'm talking about since I'm new to java, just thought there'd be something built in. Please feel free to correct me!

Mick Barry

swing is part of the standard install (has been since java2)

CEHJ

There's nothing to download. Swing will already be in the JRE of the user

Mick Barry

And SwingWorker is standard in 1.6. And is only a single class if you want to support earlier versions of java.

see the links I posted earlier for how to use it.

Mick Barry

heres an example that shows it being used to do some long calculations and update the gui for the progress

http://www.java2s.com/Code/Java/Swing-JFC/SwingworkerExample.htm

And some background
http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/threads/threads2.html