update DESIGN.md

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Michael Hudson-Doyle 2019-12-12 15:48:11 +13:00
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@ -146,23 +146,21 @@ controllers don't have a corresponding model class.
### Doing things in the background ### Doing things in the background
If the UI does not block, as promised above, then there needs to be a way of If the UI does not block, as promised above, then there needs to be a way of
running things in the background. Subiquity uses a few different ways to do running things in the background and subiquity uses
this but new code should use [asyncio](https://docs.python.org/3/library/asyncio.html) for this.
[asyncio](https://docs.python.org/3/library/asyncio.html). `subiquity.async_helpers` `subiquity.async_helpers` defines two useful helper functions:
defines two useful helper functions `run_in_thread` (just a nicer wrapper
around `run_in_executor`) and `schedule_task` (a wrapper around `create_task` * `run_in_thread` (just a nicer wrapper around `run_in_executor`)
that works before the event loop is * `schedule_task` (a wrapper around `create_task` / `ensure_future`)
started). [trio](https://trio.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) has nicer APIs but is
[trio](https://trio.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) has nicer APIs but is
a bit too new for now. a bit too new for now.
The older approach which is still present in the codebase is the `run_in_bg` The older approach which is still present in the codebase is the `run_in_bg`
function, which takes two functions: one that takes no arguments and is called function, which takes two functions: one that takes no arguments and is called
in a background thread and a callback that takes one argument, and is called in a background thread and a callback that takes one argument, and is called
in the main/UI thread with a `concurrent.futures.Future` representing the in the main/UI thread with a `concurrent.futures.Future` representing the
result of calling the first function. I tried a few abstractions to try to result of calling the first function.
make things clearer -- `subiquity.tasksequence.TaskSequence` and
`subiquity.controllers.installprogress.StateMachine` being two -- but they
didn't really help all that much in the end.
A cast-iron rule: Only touch the UI from the main thread. A cast-iron rule: Only touch the UI from the main thread.