Environment: Windows 9x/NT, Visual C++ 6.0
If you use Sleep() in your code, you will soon realize that
your application “appears” to block. This is because the Sleep()
function does not process the message pump, and due to this your application
gives the appearance of “hanging” for some time.
I’ve written an alternative function which keeps processing the
message pump to ensure that all message are posted even while the Sleep
is in progress.
You may not find it neccessary to use the XSleep() function
all the time. For instance, in a console based application. There are some
scenarios where you may need this over Sleep(), especially if you’re
using Sleep in a GUI application.
The XSleep() code uses only Win32 calls, and so it can be
used in both MFC and Win32 applications.
To use XSleep() include the XSleep.h file into your
project and then call the XSleep() function with the required sleep
duration in miliseconds as the parameter.
XSleep(1000); // sleep for 1 second
A demo Visual C++ 6.0 project is available for download. The demo creates two threads
and makes them both go to sleep for 2 seconds.