I'd like to start this page off with a question. How do you kill one thread from within another? Here's some code that shows the problem:

import threading
import time

class Worker(threading.Thread):
  def __init__(self, eventChannel, eventHandler):
    self.eventChannel = eventChannel
    self.eventHandler = eventHandler
    self.stopFlag = 0

  def shutdown(self):
    self.stopFlag = 1

  def run(self):
    self.stopFlag = 0
    while(!self.stopFlag):
      event = self.eventChannel.waitEvent()
      self.eventHandler.dispatchEvent(event)

eventChannel = EventChannel()
eventHandler = eventHandler()

worker = Worker(eventChannel, eventHandler)
worker.run()
time.sleep(20)
worker.shutdown()

The problem here is that EventChannel.waitEvent() is a blocking operation. So if no event ever arrives, then our worker thread never stops. Suggestions? --ChrisSteinbach