Question

I have a code right below…take a look.

enter.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            if (enter.getText().length()>0){

            addToChat("You: "+enter.getText());
                enter.setText("");
                delay(1000);
                addToChat("oie");
            }

        }
    });

And here is the delay void.

  public static void delay(int delayTime){
    try
    {
        Thread.sleep(delayTime);
    } catch (InterruptedException ie)
    {
    }
}

The problem is whoever I type something into the text box and hit enter, it takes one second for not only the one to show up in the text area, but also the “You: ” text block to show up, which is before the delay. Why is this delay affecting things BEFORE it and how can I fix this?

Answer 1

The UI does not get a chance to update before your action listener is finished. If you would like to change something after the delay, you should schedule it on a different thread, rather than wait inside the event handler:

addToChat("You: "+enter.getText());
enter.setText("");
new Thread(
    new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            delay(1000);
            addToChat("oie");
        }
    }
).start();