Pause Not Pausing

[joefox]

I have a function that i send it a int like 3, and the function will pause for 3 seconds then move on..
However... i cant seem to get the pause to work correctly, it just shoots right through the function.

    'Function To Control Pause / Wait Time Selected
    Private Sub Pause(ByVal seconds As Integer)
        Dim returnTime As Date = Now.AddSeconds(seconds)
        Do While Now < returnTime
            Application.DoEvents()
            Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)
        Loop
    End Sub

   Private Sub btnSubmit_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSubmit.Click
        Try
          Pause(3)
          MsgBox("OK")
          Pause(3)
        Catch ex As Exception
           Pause(3)
           MsgBox("Error")
           Pause(3)
        End Try
    End Sub

[Guerrero]

maybe you can simply do


Private Sub Pause(ByVal nSeconds As Integer)
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(nSeconds * 1000)

[joefox]

I think when you do that, it freezes the app, i dont want it to freeze the app

[Guerrero]

I think when you do that, it freezes the app, i dont want it to freeze the app

I use this technique in several sites and don't understand the freeze you comment.

I think there is more freeze when doevents called each 100 milliseconds.
maybe call doevents only one time each second.

don't sure how to test the freezes you comment.

[joefox]

I just tried it, and it dosent give the desired results..

[Guerrero]

I just tried it, and it dosent give the desired results..

what is "freeze"?
some of blinking controls in the form?

(btw I don't lile to using maybe-reserved-words as "seconds" as parameters)

[joefox]

yes it acts like its trying to process something.
before in my other apps it would make the function wait... then go not freezing the app

[Guerrero]

I've made a form with pause(9) and works fine.
without using doevents,
but using the full sentence (;-)
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(9 * 1000)

[Guerrero]

yes it acts like its trying to process something.
before in my other apps it would make the function wait... then go not freezing the app

sure... your doevents....

[SJWhiteley]

Not the way to go (i.e. do NOT use sleep like this to 'pause' your application).

Depending on what you want to do, you can simply enable (start) a timer, after setting the desired interval (in milliseconds). When the timer tick event fires, you can continue processing, and disable the timer.

Really, though, you need to rethink the necessity of a 'pause'. Windows is an event driven system, and as such, you need to respond to events through event driven programming. Timers are used to generate interval-based events for you to respond to.

[joefox]

I have the pause working at home, but i have the full version of VS2010, here at work i have Express version of 2010 maybe thats why my "pause" style is not working?

[boops boops]

Threading.Thread.Sleep doesn't freeze the application, just the thread. Of course, that doesn't make any practical difference if you are not using multiple threads. One way to pause something without freezing the app is to use a separate thread. An easy way to do that to use a System.Timers.Timer (not a Windows.Forms.Timer!). Its Elapsed event fires on a separate thread. Here's an example of a Delay sub that uses it:

Private WithEvents tim As New System.Timers.Timer With {.Enabled = False, .AutoReset = False}
Private delayMessage As String

    Private Sub Delay(ByVal message As String, ByVal seconds As Single)
        tim.Interval = seconds * 1000
        delayMessage = message
        tim.Start()
    End Sub

    Private Sub tim_Elapsed(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs) Handles tim.Elapsed
        MessageBox.Show(delayMessage)
    End Sub

There are some limitations to what you can do in the Elapsed sub, though. A MessageBox works, and so does MsgBox. But you can't change anything directly in the UI such as setting a TextBox text, because you get a threading error. Instead, you could raise an event and handle it.

BB

[dbasnett]

What is the pause for? It looks like you are trying to "pause" the UI for 3 seconds, then show a message box, and after the user presses OK, "pause" the UI for 3 more seconds. As has been pointed out this is not something you should do, but without knowing your reasoning it is hard to provide help.