Question

I like the Distpatcher in the System.Windows.Threading namespace, and would like to use this object in a class library. However, since it was created for WPF and and seems to be specific to the UI, I feel like I’m abusing its intended purpose by using it in a class library.

I’m wondering if there exists some other class that serves the same purpose (creating a queue of work items for a thread) but is better intended for use in a class library. Essentially all I want to do is create a thread and, from another thread, asynchronously queue a bunch of delegates for it to run.

I could build something quite easily, but I would prefer to follow standard convention and use something that’s already proven. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

BlockingCollection is exactly what you need then. The Take method blocks until an item appears in the queue which makes it ideal for these types of producer-consumer like scenarios.

public class Worker
{
  private BlockingCollection<Action> m_Queue = new BlockingCollection<Action>();

  public Worker()
  {
    var thread = new Thread(
      () =>
      {
        while (true)
        {
          Action action = m_Queue.Take();
          action();
        }
      });
    thread.IsBackground = true;
    thread.Start();
  }

  public void QueueWorkItem(Action action)
  {
    m_Queue.Add(action);
  }
}