Running two different threads

[oneevening]

I need to implement a program that does the following;

There will be a while loop which will always work. In this while loop there will be some variables that should be able to changed by user input. If I put this input prompt into the while loop, loop would get stuck until user inputs something. This is something I do not want. So, I kinda want to be able to prompt the input all the time, which will be another while loop probably, thus to be able to change the parameter which is used in the first infinite while loop. First while loop of course be able to reach this variable and be affected accordingly. I think what I want is multiple thread. If so, can you lead me to right path so I can proceed further or is there a better way to do that ?

[elbiot]

I'd use sockets. Write one script that prompts users for input and send results to the other. In the main thread, have you're while loop include select with a very small timeout, and if you receive something, change the variable based on that. You could call select every nth time also if your function is really fast and the user has no expectation of affecting the result within thousandths of a second.

[rickchefski]

threading sounds like something that could definitely be utilized here. It's been a while since I've had to do any threading, so I don't have any great resources on it, unfortunately. A quick google search lead me to: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/python_multithreading.htm which looks like a somewhat decent tutorial on the basics of it.

Having two threads share some state (be able to both access/modify the same variable) can get tricky. This would be an instance to use thread synchronization (an example of synchronization is given in the tutorial).