using System.Threading;

namespace FileLoaders {
    /// <summary>
    ///     The superclass that you should derive from. It provides Start() and Stop() method and Running property.
    ///     It will start the thread to run Run() when you call Start().
    /// </summary>
    public abstract class RunnableThread
    {
        private readonly Thread _runnerThread;

        protected RunnableThread()
        {
            // we need to create a thread instead of calling Run() directly because it would block unity
            // from doing other tasks like drawing game scenes
            _runnerThread = new Thread(Run);
        }

        protected bool Running { get; private set; }

        /// <summary>
        /// This method will get called when you call Start(). Programmer must implement this method while making sure that
        /// this method terminates in a finite time. You can use Running property (which will be set to false when Stop() is
        /// called) to determine when you should stop the method.
        /// </summary>
        protected abstract void Run();

        public void Start()
        {
            Running = true;
            _runnerThread.Start();
        }

        public void Stop()
        {
            Running = false;
            // block main thread, wait for _runnerThread to finish its job first, so we can be sure that 
            // _runnerThread will end before main thread end
            _runnerThread.Join();
        }
    }
}