[suggestion+code] timed deq for the Queue class?

Hi,

Based on my earlier emails and further thinking, I've implemented the
following methods which seem to work and which other people might find
useful. No guarantees that they're 100% correct, but it seems to do
what I want. Would it be possible to add something like this to the
standard Queue?

$ cat fu.rb
require 'thread'
require 'timeout'

class TimedReadQueue < Queue
   
  # Waits for the specified timeout (seconds) and returns,
  # waking up the accessing thread. This method avoids a
  # problem with using Timeout and Queue together to achieve
  # the same result.

  def tdeq(timeout)
    data = nil
     
    if(empty?)
      mt = Thread.current

      # This thread will wait for the timeout. If it is still
      # alive, it will remove the read thread (rt) from the
      # waiting list, kill it and restart the main thread.

      rt = nil
      tt = Thread.new do
        Thread.stop; sleep(timeout); @waiting.delete(rt); mt.wakeup
        __timeout
      end
       
      # This thread will actually try and read the data. If
      # it gets data, it will kill the timer and wake up the
      # main thread.

      rt = Thread.new do
        Thread.stop; data = deq; __arnold(tt); mt.wakeup
        __read
      end

      begin
        tt.run
        rt.run
        Thread.stop
      ensure
        mt.wakeup
        __arnold(tt)
        __arnold(rt)
      end
    else
      # just read the data
      begin
        data = deq(true)
      rescue ThreadError
        # don't care
        data = nil
      end
    end

    # return the data value
    data
  end

private

  # This method takes a thread and unconditionally terminates
  # it, completely and utterly

  def __arnold(thread)
    thread.kill if thread && thread.alive?
  end

  def __timeout
    puts("TIMEOUT: #{length} elements; #{num_waiting} threads waiting.")
  end

  def __read
    puts("READ: #{length} elements; #{num_waiting} threads waiting.")
  end
end

The entire program (with minimal, manual tests) is also attached.

Any/all feedback more than welcome.

Cheers,

ast

fu.rb (2.47 KB)

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