howdy, Scott!

Hello Mark

Haven't quite got rid of me yet

questions about threading for you today

fire away

Alright, so I need to send something to a server

so obviously I want to do that in an async task

or an IntentService, but certainly in a non-main-application thread

I'm currently doing this inside of a service

I'm using one of Googles new methods for connecting with app engine

and it doesn't seem to support concurrency

and I end up needing to send multiple things

so while one is still sending, I end up with another that needs to be sent

how would you recommend I do this?

I was thinking I would probably use a blocking queue

but I'm really not that familiar with concurrency

two questions:

1. what is making the decision that something needs to be sent? an activity? a service?

2. what happens to your service when there is nothing more to be sent?

1. the Service

2. It stays open. OnStartCommand returns Service.START_STICKY;

then I'd dump the AsyncTask (you're presumably not using onPostExecute() anyway) and use a thread with a LinkedBlockingQueue

ok

how do I implement a thread? I tried for something simple once, but it kinda failed, so I dumped it and went back to AsyncTask

you'll see an example of this in the AdvServices/RemoteServiceEx project

ok

I use a thread and LinkedBlockingQueue to asynchronously handle requests from a client over a remote service binding

this is covered in the Advanced Services chapter of _The Busy Coder's Guide to Advanced Android Development)

ok

let me load up that project real fast

to actually run it, you'd also need AdvServices/RemoteClientEx

since it's a remote service sample

hey

what is the difference between the Google API's and the Android X.X for the build targets

Google APIs have Google Maps

is that the only difference?

AFAIK, yes

so unless I want to use google maps I should just use the sdk

?

not necessarily

for an AVD, I'd use the Maps one, because devices will have Maps

(at least in general)

for a build target, stick with the plain SDK unless you're using Maps, though

AVD?

emulator image

hmmm

so it looks like the thread is paused here

Job j=q.take();

correct

take() is a blocking call

and that's ok?

it's ok to just have a paused thread... all the time?

that's kinda the point

if there is nothing to do, you want the thread to consume no CPU time

so, you block

now, you wouldn't call take() on the main application thread, because that thread has work to do

i just thought it was a waste to have a thread taken and paused the entire time

I wasn't sure what that would do

but that won't have a negetive performance impact at all on the phone?

*negative

no

most threads in most OSes are paused

that's the normal state of affairs for a thread

they only run when there's something to do

is there a limit to the number of threads an application can have?

well, I wouldn't have dozens

I'm sorry, I meant phone

an Android app uses six or so just out of the box, all but the main application thread are usually paused

the phone doesn't have threads

processes have threads

right

the issue isn't having threads, it's *having threads doing work*

but the processor has to handle those threads

blocked threads are doing no work

they consume no CPU time

ok

cool beans

that's really exciting

you might consider picking up _Concurrent Programming in Java_ if Java threading is new to you

430 pages >.<

yeah, well, don't read it all in one sitting... :-)

thats the problem

when I get a good book I can't put it down

I went through half of your first book in 2 days

wow

and then I had to stop for like a week and a half to catch back up in school

out of curiosity, how many subscriptions have you sold?

you don't have to answer that

lots

lol

nice and vague

let's put it this way...

I offer the Four-to-Free Guarantee, which says that book editions go Creative Commons after four years or 4,000 copies sold

where "copies" combines print + Warescriptions

I have plenty of editions in Creative Commons licensed mode now (you'll see them on the Four-to-Free Guarantee tab on each book page on the main site)

I seee

alright

well

I'll ask you 1 more oppinion question

and then I'll leave you to it

I accidentally ran into 2 internships, both of which deal with mobile development with android. I've submitted my resume, and one of them is pretty darn interested in me

cool!

I'm assuming that they are going to ask me for a pay range during the interview

how much would you recommend I request?

beats me

that'd be driven more by what interns get nowadays, than by Android

pfft

yeah I suppose you are right

it was at least when I was intern age

how old are you now?

too old to be answering that question

yeah I figured

let's just say "twice your age" is probably in the ballpark

it just sounded by the question above that you were interning when android was around

oh, no

which kinda shocked me as that'd put you around my age

when I was an intern, a portable computer weighed about 15 pounds

anyways Mark. I'll see you later, I'm sure. I see these office hours as too valuable of a resource not to try and take advantage of them :-P

hey, that's why they're here

happy to help

haha, well I appreciate it