Handler,Looper&&在异步线程中更新UI

做过Android的同学一定非常熟悉Handler和Thread在Android中的重要性。我们一般会在一个线程中执行耗时操作然后通过Handler的post()或者sendMessage()的方法将消息发送出去（此时是在异步线程）。最后就会在handleMessage()根据what来执行相关的内容或者执行相应的Runnable（UI线程）。

那么这是如何执行的呢，为什么可以从非UI线程执行到了UI线程？这里面又接触到了两个类：MessageQueue和Looper。 

我们只需要看两个方法。

MessageQueue#enqueueMessage(Message msg,long when)

故名思义是将Message加入到队列中。加入的时候会通过synchronized防止同时修改，并且是根据when的时间顺序来加入的。

    boolean enqueueMessage(Message msg, long when) {
        if (msg.target == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Message must have a target.");
        }
        if (msg.isInUse()) {
            throw new IllegalStateException(msg + " This message is already in use.");
        }

        synchronized (this) {
            if (mQuitting) {
                IllegalStateException e = new IllegalStateException(
                        msg.target + " sending message to a Handler on a dead thread");
                Log.w(TAG, e.getMessage(), e);
                msg.recycle();
                return false;
            }

            msg.markInUse();
            msg.when = when;
            Message p = mMessages;
            boolean needWake;
            if (p == null || when == 0 || when < p.when) {
                // New head, wake up the event queue if blocked.
                msg.next = p;
                mMessages = msg;
                needWake = mBlocked;
            } else {
                // Inserted within the middle of the queue.  Usually we don't have to wake
                // up the event queue unless there is a barrier at the head of the queue
                // and the message is the earliest asynchronous message in the queue.
                needWake = mBlocked && p.target == null && msg.isAsynchronous();
                Message prev;
                for (;;) {
                    prev = p;
                    p = p.next;
                    if (p == null || when < p.when) {
                        break;
                    }
                    if (needWake && p.isAsynchronous()) {
                        needWake = false;
                    }
                }
                msg.next = p; // invariant: p == prev.next
                prev.next = msg;
            }

            // We can assume mPtr != 0 because mQuitting is false.
            if (needWake) {
                nativeWake(mPtr);
            }
        }
        return true;
    }

Looper#loop()

    public static void loop() {
        final Looper me = myLooper();
        if (me == null) {
            throw new RuntimeException("No Looper; Looper.prepare() wasn't called on this thread.");
        }
        final MessageQueue queue = me.mQueue;

        // Make sure the identity of this thread is that of the local process,
        // and keep track of what that identity token actually is.
        Binder.clearCallingIdentity();
        final long ident = Binder.clearCallingIdentity();

        for (;;) {
            Message msg = queue.next(); // might block
            if (msg == null) {
                // No message indicates that the message queue is quitting.
                return;
            }

            // This must be in a local variable, in case a UI event sets the logger
            Printer logging = me.mLogging;
            if (logging != null) {
                logging.println(">>>>> Dispatching to " + msg.target + " " +
                        msg.callback + ": " + msg.what);
            }

            msg.target.dispatchMessage(msg);

            if (logging != null) {
                logging.println("<<<<< Finished to " + msg.target + " " + msg.callback);
            }

            // Make sure that during the course of dispatching the
            // identity of the thread wasn't corrupted.
            final long newIdent = Binder.clearCallingIdentity();
            if (ident != newIdent) {
                Log.wtf(TAG, "Thread identity changed from 0x"
                        + Long.toHexString(ident) + " to 0x"
                        + Long.toHexString(newIdent) + " while dispatching to "
                        + msg.target.getClass().getName() + " "
                        + msg.callback + " what=" + msg.what);
            }

            msg.recycleUnchecked();
        }
    }

则是在不断的从一个死循环中读取一个Message，然后通过dispatchMessage()去分发这个Message，最后会通过相应的handleMessage()或者Runnable去执行相应的事件。

至此就完成了从异步线程耗时操作到了UI线程的UI更新。可回想一下Android中关于异步线程中更新UI的方式。

1.Handler#sendMessage()

2.Handler#post()

3.View#post()

4.Activity#runOnUiThread()

这些方式的背后最终都是通过Handler，Looper的机制来实现的。

Handler解决了跨线程之间的通信。但是也存在一些确定，其中包括对消息的暂停，恢复等等。