XtAppMainLoop() XtAppMainLoop()
Name
XtAppMainLoop - continuously process events.
Synopsis
void XtAppMainLoop(app_context)
XtAppContext app_context;
Inputs
app_context
Specifies the application context that identifies the application.
Returns
XtAppMainLoop() enters an infinite loop and never returns.
Description
XtAppMainLoop() enters an infinite loop which calls XtAppNextEvent() to wait for an events on all displays in app_context and XtDis-
patchEvent() to dispatch that event to the appropriate code.
Usage
Most applications will call XtAppNextEvent() as the last line of their main() procedure. Some applications may provide their own versions
of this loop, however. A custom event loop might test an application-dependent global flag or other termination condition before looping
back and calling XtAppNextEvent(). If the number of top-level widgets drops to zero, the application may be able to exit safely, for exam-
ple.
Applications that use multiple application contexts or that use internal event loops will have to build their own event loop.
Background
XtAppNextEvent() looks for X events in the input queue, and also handles timer events (see XtAppAddTimeOut()) and events from alternate
input sources (see XtAppAddInput()). If none of these events are pending and a work procedure (see XtAppAddWorkProc()) is registered,
XtAppNextEvent() invokes that work procedure to do background processing, otherwise it blocks waiting for an event. Note that XtAppNex-
tEvent() dispatches timer and input events directly, but returns any X events that occur. Within XtAppMainLoop(), these X events are
always passed to XtDispatchEvent().
XtDispatchEvent() dispatches an event to the appropriate event handlers (see XtAddEventHandler()). Note that the translation manager reg-
isters an event handler, and that events that are dispatched to the translation manager will be further dispatched through the transla-
tions-to-actions mechanism.
Example
XtAppMainLoop() is implemented as follows:
void XtAppMainLoop(app)
XtAppContext app;
{
XEvent event;
for (;;) {
XtAppNextEvent(app, &event);
XtDispatchEvent(&event);
}
}
See AlsoXtAddEventHandler(1), XtAppAddInput(1), XtAppAddTimeOut(1), XtAppAddWorkProc(1), XtAppNextEvent(1), XtAppProcessEvent(1), XtDis-
patchEvent(1).
Xt - Event Handling XtAppMainLoop()
Check Out this Related Man Page
XtAppNextEvent(3Xt)XtAppNextEvent(3Xt)NAME
XtAppNextEvent, XtAppPending, XtAppPeekEvent, XtAppProcessEvent, XtDispatchEvent, XtAppMainLoop - query and process events and input
SYNOPSIS
void XtAppNextEvent(app_context, event_return)
XtAppContext app_context;
XEvent *event_return;
Boolean XtAppPeekEvent(app_context, event_return)
XtAppContext app_context;
XEvent *event_return;
XtInputMask XtAppPending(app_context)
XtAppContext app_context;
void XtAppProcessEvent(app_context, mask)
XtAppContext app_context;
XtInputMask mask;
Boolean XtDispatchEvent(event)
XEvent *event;
void XtAppMainLoop(app_context)
XtAppContext app_context;
ARGUMENTS
Specifies the application context that identifies the application. Specifies a pointer to the event structure that is to be dispatched to
the appropriate event handler. Returns the event information to the specified event structure. Specifies what types of events to process.
The mask is the bitwise inclusive OR of any combination of XtIMXEvent, XtIMTimer, XtIMAlternateInput, and XtIMSignal. As a convenience, the
X Toolkit defines the symbolic name XtIMAll to be the bitwise inclusive OR of all event types.
DESCRIPTION
If the X event queue is empty, XtAppNextEvent flushes the X output buffers of each Display in the application context and waits for an
event while looking at the other input sources, timeout values, and signal handlers and calling any callback procedures triggered by them.
This wait time can be used for background processing (see Section 7.8).
If there is an event in the queue, XtAppPeekEvent fills in the event and returns a nonzero value. If no X input is on the queue,
XtAppPeekEvent flushes the output buffer and blocks until input is available (possibly calling some timeout callbacks in the process). If
the input is an event, XtAppPeekEvent fills in the event and returns a nonzero value. Otherwise, the input is for an alternate input
source, and XtAppPeekEvent returns zero.
The XtAppPending function returns a nonzero value if there are events pending from the X server, timer pending, or other input sources
pending. The value returned is a bit mask that is the OR of XtIMXEvent, XtIMTimer, XtIMAlternateInput, and XtIMSignal (see XtAppProcessEv-
ent). If there are no events pending, XtAppPending flushes the output buffer and returns zero.
The XtAppProcessEvent function processes one timer, alternate input, signal source, or X event. If there is nothing of the appropriate
type to process, XtAppProcessEvent blocks until there is. If there is more than one type of thing available to process, it is undefined
which will get processed. Usually, this procedure is not called by client applications (see XtAppMainLoop). XtAppProcessEvent processes
timer events by calling any appropriate timer callbacks, alternate input by calling any appropriate alternate input callbacks, signal
source by calling any appropriate signal callbacks, and X events by calling XtDispatchEvent.
When an X event is received, it is passed to XtDispatchEvent, which calls the appropriate event handlers and passes them the widget, the
event, and client-specific data registered with each procedure. If there are no handlers for that event registered, the event is ignored
and the dispatcher simply returns. The order in which the handlers are called is undefined.
The XtDispatchEvent function sends those events to the event handler functions that have been previously registered with the dispatch rou-
tine. XtDispatchEvent returns True if it dispatched the event to some handler and False if it found no handler to dispatch the event to.
The most common use of XtDispatchEvent is to dispatch events acquired with the XtAppNextEvent procedure. However, it also can be used to
dispatch user-constructed events. XtDispatchEvent also is responsible for implementing the grab semantics for XtAddGrab.
The XtAppMainLoop function first reads the next incoming X event by calling XtAppNextEvent and then it dispatches the event to the appro-
priate registered procedure by calling XtDispatchEvent. This constitutes the main loop of X Toolkit applications, and, as such, it does not
return. Applications are expected to exit in response to some user action. There is nothing special about XtAppMainLoop; it is simply an
infinite loop that calls XtAppNextEvent and then XtDispatchEvent.
Applications can provide their own version of this loop, which tests some global termination flag or tests that the number of top-level
widgets is larger than zero before circling back to the call to XtAppNextEvent.
SEE ALSO
X Toolkit Intrinsics -- C Language Interface
Xlib -- C Language X Interface
XtAppNextEvent(3Xt)