Is it possible to run winapi.MessageLoop() asyncronously?

[pluto439]

As it is now, repl terminal gets blocked when I launch winapi.MessageLoop(). Is there a way to start it asyncronously?

Here is the code I'm using. The only difference from one on docs page is lack of local, it doesn't work in repl for some reason.

winapi = require'winapi'
require'winapi.windowclass'

win = winapi.Window{
   w = 500,                --all these are "initial fields"
   h = 300,
   title = 'Lua rulez',
   autoquit = true,        --this is to quit app when the window is closed
   visible = false,        --this field is from BaseWindow
}

function win:on_close()    --this is an event handler
   print'Bye'
end

print(win.title)           --this is how to read the value of a property
win.title = 'Lua rulez!'   --this is how to set the value of a property
win:show()                 --this is a method call

winapi.MessageLoop() --start the message loop

I want to do win.w=100 after the window is opened. From terminal.

[capr]

What exactly do you mean by asynchronously? In a different thread?

[pluto439]

Probably, but I'm afraid having two threads will complicate things...

I need to get window running, but still have console available to manipulate it.

[capr]

You'll have to implement that yourself somehow. Either with threads and queues or with coroutines and a custom repl (i.e. not one that is blocking waiting for key presses).

[Rami-Sabbagh]

It's kind of possible, (I've done it).

You'll have to handle the messages loop yourself, it's very resourceful to look at the messages loop code in https://github.com/luapower/winapi/blob/master/winapi/basewindowclass.lua

Functions to look for in basewindowclass.lua:

• ProcessMessage
• MessageLoop
• ProcessNextMessage (Most important, has a timeout parameter).
• ProcessMessage (Use MessageLoop instead, this doesn't return the exit code).

Here's some code I've written to show a window for 10 seconds then close it:

  win.visible = true
	
  local endClock = os.clock() + 10
  
  while true do
    local continue, exitcode = winapi.ProcessNextMessage(math.max(endClock-os.clock(),0))
    
		--Window has been closed manually.
    if not continue and exitcode then break end
    
    --Time over, close the window and confirm that.
    if os.clock() >= endClock then
      win:close()
      winapi.MessageLoop()
      break
    end
  end

I hope my comment was useful even after 1 year of the issue creation.