Question

Is it allowed/discouraged to use a Label in a Windows Form application for displaying the application status?

At first I thought it would have been a wise idea, but now I realized I have many logs that do not display, and often crashes if I don’t put a try/catch around the Label.Text change.
Here’s the function I use.

private void Echo(string p)
{
    lock (m_syncObject)
    {
        try
        {
            InfoBox.Text = p.ToString();
        }
        catch { }
    }
}

As you can see, I also added a lock to multiple access to the same resource.
Can anyone explain why do I frequently end up in the ‘catch’?

Answer 1

InfoBox.Text = p.ToString(); -> That can generate a cross-thread exception. Try this instead:

delegate void myDelegate(ref Label lb, string toAdd);
private void UpdateLabel(ref Label lb, string toAdd)
{
    if (this.InvokeRequired)
    {
        this.Invoke(new myDelegate(UpdateLabel), new object[] { lb, toAdd });
    }
    else
    {
        lb.Text = toAdd;
    }
}