Is there a way to write a command so that it aborts a running function call?

Question

I have a widget that measures elapsed time, then after a certain duration it does a command. However, if the widget is left I want I want it to abort this function call and not do the command.

How do I go about this?

Answer 1

Use the threading module and start a new thread that will run the function.

Just abort the function is a bad idea as you don't know if you interrupt the thread in a critical situation. You should extend your function like this:

import threading

class WidgetThread(threading.Thread):
     def __init__(self):
         threading.Thread.__init__(self)
         self._stop = False

     def run(self):
        # ... do some time-intensive stuff that stops if self._stop ...
        #
        # Example:
        #  while not self._stop:
        #      do_somthing()

     def stop(self):
         self._stop = True



# Start the thread and make it run the function:

thread = WidgetThread()
thread.start()

# If you want to abort it:

thread.stop()