Question

I’m pretty new to Python, and programming in general and I’m creating a virtual pet style game for my little sister.

Is it possible to run 2 while loops parallel to each other in python?
eg:

while 1:
    input_event_1 = gui.buttonbox(
        msg = 'Hello, what would you like to do with your Potato Head?',
        title = 'Main Screen',
        choices = ('Check Stats', 'Feed', 'Exercise', 'Teach', 'Play', 'Go to Doctor', 'Sleep', 'Change Favourite Thing', 'Get New Toy', 'Quit'))
    if input_event_1 == 'Check Stats':
        myPotatoHead.check_p_h_stats()
    elif input_event_1 == 'Feed':
        myPotatoHead.feed_potato_head()
    elif input_event_1 == 'Exercise':
        myPotatoHead.exercise_potato_head()
    elif input_event_1 == 'Teach':
        myPotatoHead.teach_potato_head(myPotatoHead)
    elif input_event_1 == 'Play':
        myPotatoHead.play_with_toy()
    elif input_event_1 == 'Sleep':
        myPotatoHead.put_p_h_asleep()
    elif input_event_1 == 'Go to Doctor':
        myPotatoHead.doctor_check_up()
    elif input_event_1 == 'Change Favourite Thing':
        myPotatoHead.change_favourite_thing()
    elif input_event_1 == 'Quit':
        input_quit = gui.ynbox(
            msg = 'Are you sure you want to quit?',
            title = 'Confirm quit',
            choices = ('Quit', 'Cancel'))
        if input_quit == 1:
            sys.exit(0)

while 1:
    time.sleep(20)
    myPotatoHead.hunger = str(float(myPotatoHead.hunger) + 1.0)
    myPotatoHead.happiness = str(float(myPotatoHead.happiness) - 1.0)
    myPotatoHead.tiredness = str(float(myPotatoHead.tiredness) + 1.0)

If not, is there some way that I can turn this into one loop?
I want the stuff in the second loop to happen every 20 seconds, but the stuff in the first loop to by constantly happening.

Thanks for any help

Answer 1

Have a look at Threading.Timer.

There is a code recipe here to schedule a function to run every 5 seconds.

import thread
import threading

class Operation(threading._Timer):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        threading._Timer.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
        self.setDaemon(True)

    def run(self):
        while True:
            self.finished.clear()
            self.finished.wait(self.interval)
            if not self.finished.isSet():
                self.function(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
            else:
                return
            self.finished.set()

class Manager(object):

    ops = []

    def add_operation(self, operation, interval, args=[], kwargs={}):
        op = Operation(interval, operation, args, kwargs)
        self.ops.append(op)
        thread.start_new_thread(op.run, ())

    def stop(self):
        for op in self.ops:
            op.cancel()
        self._event.set()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Print "Hello World!" every 5 seconds

    import time

    def hello():
        print "Hello World!"

    timer = Manager()
    timer.add_operation(hello, 5)

    while True:
        time.sleep(.1)