Question

I’ve made a class in Python 3.x, that acts as a server. One method manages sending and receiving data via UDP/IP using the socket module (the data is stored in self.cmd, and self.msr respectively). I want to be able to modify the the self.msr, self.cmd variables from within the python interpreter online. For example:

>>> from myserver import MyServer
>>> s = MyServer()
>>> s.bakcground_recv_send() # runs in the background, constantly calling s.recv_msr(), s.send_cmd()
>>> process_data(s.msr) # I use the latest received data
>>> s.cmd[0] = 5 # this will be sent automatically
>>> s.msr # I can see what the newest data is

So far, s.bakcground_recv_send() does not exist. I need to manually call s.recv_msr() each time I want to see update the value of s.msr (s.recv_msr uses a blocking socket), and then call s.send_cmd() to send s.cmd.

In this particular case, which module makes more sense: multiprocess or threading?
Any hints how could I best solve this? I have no experience with either processes or threads (just read a lot, but I am still unsure which way to go).

Answer 1

In this case, threading makes most sense. In short, multiprocessing is for running processes on different procesors, threading is for doing things in the background.