Question

I am using pseudo-synchronous sockets in a Windows Phone 7 application. My socket code is based on the sample from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202858(v=vs.92).aspx.

The server’s sending pattern is somewhat unpredictable. It starts with a fixed-size header that contains the length of the rest of the message. I first read in this header, and then I read the specified number of bytes from the socket.

Since I need to send messages to the server as well, and my attempts at duplexing the socket with a thread for receiving and another thread for sending caused lots of problems, I have a loop like this in my code:

while (KeepConnectionGoing)
        {
            byte[] Rcvd;
            Rcvd = Socket.Receive();//Returns null if no message received in 50 ms
            if (Rcvd != null)
            {
                ParseMessage(Rcvd);
            }

            if (HasMessageThatNeedsToBeSent())
            {
                byte[] Message = GetMessageToSend();
                Socket.Send(Message);
            }
        }

This works fine for the majority of the time, but strange things happen when the message is null.
Because the timeout in the Receive method (see the linked sample) uses a ManualResetEvent, the receive request on the socket is never actually cancels. Even though the method returns, that request waits around somewhere, and when data is available on the socket, chomps up the header. The event handler has nothing to do with the data it received (since the method has returned and the variables in the method will never be used again), the data basically disappears. The read request I expect to return the header skips reads the bytes after the header, and I have no idea how long the message is.

I’d like to be able to cancel all outstanding requests if the socket times out. I am using anonymous methods like in the sample since it simplifies everything and prevents me from having to write all the state transfer code myself. Thus, I cannot unhook the event handler. I think though, that even if I were using a method as the event handler, but unhooking before the asynchronous operation is done, the callback method would still be called. (I haven’t tested this, it’s just my understanding)

Right now, the only solution I can see is hacking together some static byte arrays (ie. having a static byte[] Header and if it is null, I read the header, otherwise I read the message), but that seems like a really inelegant solution and very prone to race conditions.

Is there a better way?

Thanks

Answer 1

It appears there really is no good way to do this. A poll method would be nice, but Silverlight doesn’t have it. I hacked together a solution using static flags to tell me what state I am in (Has the header been requested, has the message been requested), a static int for the length and a static buffer.

At the beginning of the method, either the header or the body can be requested. If the header has already been requested, the thread waits until a valid body length is available. If this wait times out, that means that the header receive operation is still pending, but there really is no message available. Otherwise, it reads in that length of a message.

If the header has not been requested, receive the header. In the event handler, after completion, check to see if the control flow has already continued (i.e. the receive operation took too long, so the function returned already, but is now actually done). Update the length, then request the body unless it timed out.