How to "split off" processor-intensive calculations in Swing ActionListener?

[evert67]

I am writing a program to solve Sudoku puzzles. My user interface is written in Swing.

When a user presses a "Solve" button, an ActionListener for this button is called. This ActionListener invokes a method that solves the Sudoku. However, this solver method is highly processor-intensive. The result is that my entire application becomes unresponsive.

I've tried putting the solver method in its own thread, but this has exactly the same results. I don't know why. Perhaps because the thread is created and run from an ActionListener method?

What are the best practices for "splitting off" processor-intensive calculations that are invoked by the user interface?

[GregBrannon]

Be sure the UI/Swing portion of the app is being run on the EDT. Processes that are processor intensive should be run in a SwingWorker. You can find several articles on how to do this by searching 'swing multithreading' and reviewing tutorials and documentation for SwingWorker.

[evert67]

Thanks. I'll read more about SwingWorker.

Just to be sure. My UI code (class ViewController_Graphics) is invoked as follows:

        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                ViewController_Graphics view = new ViewController_Graphics(model);
            }
        } );

Is this the correct way to run it on the EDT?

[GregBrannon]

If ViewController_Graphics presents the Swing UI, then it looks like you're doing the EDT part correctly, though I'm not sure of the purpose of the object 'view'. Sometimes that happens with a work in progress, so don't sweat it.