Should I use AsyncTask or threads on hold button action?

Question

I have an AsyncTask that writes data to a socket and I wan't to do an onTouch event that holds a button until release. I've actually done that with AsyncTask but the application crashes after writing to the socket. Should I use threads instead or is there a better solution to this problem?

Edit: I get the message "Waiting for a blocking GC Alloc" in the logcat.

OnTouchListener code:

buttonUp.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
            while(true){
                if (event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN){
                    new moveForward().execute();
                } else if (event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP){
                    break;
                }
            }

            return false;
        }
    });

AsyncTask code:

private class moveForward extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void>{

    @Override
    protected Void doInBackground(Void... voids) {
        try {
            MainActivity.client.write('u');

        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        try {
            Thread.sleep(200);
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        return null;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(Void aVoid) {
    }
}

Answer 1

You should never run an endless loop on the main UI thread. You can start a task in ACTION_DOWN and end it in ACTION UP. You are starting multiple tasks endlessly. Try this code

    moveForward moveForward;
    buttonUp.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
                if (event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN){
                    moveForward = new moveForward();
                    moveForward.execute();
                } else if (event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP){
                    moveForward.cancel(true);
                }

            return false;
        }
    });


    private class moveForward extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void>{

    @Override
    protected Void doInBackground(Void... voids) {
        while(!isCancelled()) {
            try {
                MainActivity.client.write('u');

            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

            try {
                Thread.sleep(200);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
         }

        return null;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(Void aVoid) {
    }
}