RunLoops

Run Loops

A run loop is a piece of infrastructure used to manage events arriving asynchronously on a thread. A run loop works by monitoring one or more event sources for the thread. As events arrive, the system wakes up the thread and dispatches the events to the run loop, which then dispatches them to the handlers you specify. If no events are present and ready to be handled, the run loop puts the thread to sleep.

You are not required to use a run loop with any threads you create but doing so can provide a better experience for the user. Run loops make it possible to create long-lived threads that use a minimal amount of resources. Because a run loop puts its thread to sleep when there is nothing to do, it eliminates the need for polling, which wastes CPU cycles and prevents the processor itself from sleeping and saving power.

To configure a run loop, all you have to do is launch your thread, get a reference to the run loop object, install your event handlers, and tell the run loop to run. The infrastructure provided by both Cocoa and Carbon handles the configuration of the main thread’s run loop for you automatically. If you plan to create long-lived secondary threads, however, you must configure the run loop for those threads yourself.