I need to implement a sort of task buffer. Basic requirements are:
- Process tasks in a single background thread
- Receive tasks from multiple threads
- Process ALL received tasks i.e. make sure buffer is drained of buffered tasks after a stop signal is received
- Order of tasks received per thread must be maintained
I was thinking of implementing it using a Queue like below. Would appreciate feedback on the implementation. Are there any other brighter ideas to implement such a thing?
public class TestBuffer
{
private readonly object queueLock = new object();
private Queue<Task> queue = new Queue<Task>();
private bool running = false;
public TestBuffer()
{
}
public void start()
{
Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(run));
t.Start();
}
private void run()
{
running = true;
bool run = true;
while(run)
{
Task task = null;
// Lock queue before doing anything
lock (queueLock)
{
// If the queue is currently empty and it is still running
// we need to wait until we're told something changed
if (queue.Count == 0 && running)
{
Monitor.Wait(queueLock);
}
// Check there is something in the queue
// Note - there might not be anything in the queue if we were waiting for something to change and the queue was stopped
if (queue.Count > 0)
{
task = queue.Dequeue();
}
}
// If something was dequeued, handle it
if (task != null)
{
handle(task);
}
// Lock the queue again and check whether we need to run again
// Note - Make sure we drain the queue even if we are told to stop before it is emtpy
lock (queueLock)
{
run = queue.Count > 0 || running;
}
}
}
public void enqueue(Task toEnqueue)
{
lock (queueLock)
{
queue.Enqueue(toEnqueue);
Monitor.PulseAll(queueLock);
}
}
public void stop()
{
lock (queueLock)
{
running = false;
Monitor.PulseAll(queueLock);
}
}
public void handle(Task dequeued)
{
dequeued.execute();
}
}
