Python 2.6 Chat Loop Issue. Cant Receive And Send Simultaneously

Question

Im trying to make a console chat program, but have a problem with my loop. I cant get input and receive the other persons input at the same time. If two message or more are sent

Answer 1

Threading isn't as hard as you think, and mastering it is an invaluable addition to your toolchest.

Just make a class that is a subclass of Thread and make sure it has a run() method. then instantiate the class and call its start() method.

Making the thread stop is more difficult to do right. Best to set a flag and make sure you check it regularly in your while loop, hence you need a timeout on your blocking recv(), of, say, 1 second.

from socket import *
from threading import Thread


#Get User Info
Ip = raw_input('IP>>>')
Port = int(raw_input('Port>>>'))
User = raw_input('Username>>>')

#Open Socket To Server
EncCon = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM)
EncCon.connect((Ip, Port))

print '\nStarting Chat....'
print '\n<-------------------------------------------->\n\n'


class ReceiveThread(Thread):

    def __init__(self, sock):
        Thread.__init__(self)
        self.sock = sock
        self.shouldstop = False

    def run(self):
        self.sock.settimeout(1)
        while not self.shouldstop:
            try:
                data = self.sock.read()
                print data
            except socket.timeout:
                continue

    def stop(self):
        self.shouldstop = True


# start receive loop:
r = ReceiveThread(EncCon).start()


#Send Loop
while 1:
    MsgOut = raw_input()
    if MsgOut: EncCon.send(MsgOut)

    if MsgOut == '.':
        r.stop()
        r.join()


EncCon.close()

Now, this program still has the original problem that it would be impossible to start two instances, as you do not listen, but immediately connect. But that, I believe, was not the main part of your question.