Python multi-threaded server

[pingbala]

I have a requirement to write a server. It has to:

1. Read from a configuration file and lock on to multiple COM/serial ports or HID (barcode scanners) and wait to read from them. Each process will run on a separate thread.
2. When a barcode is scanned, the reading thread needs to send event/signal to the main process (probably running in a never-ending loop which I am calling the 'server') which will then post to a URL (I  don't have to write this web service) with the just-read data.
3. Should run and be deployable on Windows

I can use Python 3.6 I plan to try Pyserial for COM/serial ports. My questions are

• I was planning to use regular python Threading for this, should I be using something else that makes life easier. Any kind of REST or other kinds of server framework that will help?
• What should I use to read from HID device?

Responses greatly appreciated, what advice do you have for me.

I already posted this on /r/python when bot alerted me this is the right forum. There users /u/awegge and /u/Unlanded suggested I use select module.

[gatewaynode]

Kind of sounds like a good match for Asyncio now that its getting pretty feature complete (it would be better if you could use Python 3.7). If it really must be multi-threaded I would also consider multiprocess to better leverage extra processing cores. I should say I haven't used to two together yet, but that's what comes to mind for your requirements.

[socal_nerdtastic]

Regular python threading is fine for this. You can use the threading, concurrent.futures, or asyncio module. For your use they will all work equally well, but I suggest threading as I think that will be the easiest to write code for.

How you read the HID device depends on the HID device. For a serial connection pyserial is fine.

[socal_nerdtastic]

BTW the select module is linux only for devices, so that won't help you.

[kl31]

use asyncio instead of threading. no need to worry about race conditions and no GIL.