[Twisted-Python] callLater(0) is A BIG LIE

Phillip J. Eby pje at telecommunity.com
Mon Nov 1 12:44:12 EST 2004


At 03:41 AM 11/1/04 -0700, Jonathan Simms wrote:
>I'd like to offer some reflections on the reactor and facilitate some
>conversation on a subject that's been causing me much frustration:
>
>     the twisted idiom, "callLater(0)"
>
>While it seems that this is a DelayedCall, it really is a lie. It has
>nothing to do with time at all, it is a very *convenient* lie that we
>all have accepted, but is a lie nonetheless.
>
>We all know this means "call function f in the next reactor iteration",

No, it means, "call f *at least* 0 seconds from now", just as 
'callLater(1,f)' means "call f *at least* 1 second from now".

AFAIK, iterations have nothing to do with it.  In fact, I believe that on a 
machine that is sufficiently fast relative to the precision of its 'time()' 
function, it was possible for a 'callLater(0,f)' to be invoked in the same 
iteration, in some versions of Twisted.

That being said, I think your example points out code in Twisted that's 
relying on 'callLater(0,f)' meaning "call f in the next iteration", and 
that code should probably be considered broken.  Only a non-zero value 
should guarantee that the code will not run in the current iteration.

(Disclaimer: I'm not a Twisted developer, but I've developed PEAK's 
scheduler system to interoperate with Twisted and vice versa, so I've had 
occasion to dabble in timer precision and iteration issues.)





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