run In Parallel

Run some other code at the same time that your main program code runs.

control.runInParallel(() => {})

Sometimes you want your program to work on more than one thing at a time. The main part of your program is always put in ||on start||. But, you can also put some other part of your program in ||control:run in parallel||. This is useful when you want your program to keep doing important things and you don’t want to wait for some other actions to happen first.

Separate tasks

As an example, you could have a small task that checks the battery level and gives a warning when it drops below 15 percent. This is placed inside a ||control:run in parallel|| block:

let powerCheck = false;

control.runInParallel(() => {
    while (!powerCheck) {
        if (brick.batteryLevel() <= 15) {
            brick.setStatusLight(StatusLight.RedFlash)
            powerCheck = true;
        } else {
            pause(5000);
        }
    }
})

The code the main program just drives the brick in a constant pattern until the battery check in the parallel task says that the battery level is too low.

let powerCheck = false;
while (!powerCheck) {
    motors.largeBC.tank(50, 50, 5, MoveUnit.Seconds)
    motors.largeBC.steer(5, 50, 6, MoveUnit.Rotations)
}
motors.stopAll()

Parameters

• a: the code to run in the background.

Example

Tank the brick in a pattern until the battery warning variable is set. Have a separate task check the battery level and set a warning variable when the level is below 5 percent.

let powerCheck = false;

control.runInParallel(() => {
    while (!powerCheck) {
        if (brick.batteryLevel() < 5) {
            powerCheck = true;
        } else {
            pause(5000);
        }
    }
})

while (!powerCheck) {
    motors.largeBC.tank(20, 20, 5, MoveUnit.Seconds)
    motors.largeBC.steer(15, 20, 6, MoveUnit.Rotations)
    motors.largeBC.tank(40, 40, 5, MoveUnit.Seconds)
    motors.largeBC.steer(-10, 20, 3, MoveUnit.Rotations)
}
motors.stopAll()

See also

forever