The solution given by Shaunti Fondrisi is nearly perfect. But such a piece of code or codes like enqueue the execution of UICollectionView's reloadData() to NSOperationQueue's mainQueue indeed puts the execution timing to the beginning of the next event loop in the run loop, which could make the UICollectionView update with a flick.
To solve this issue. We must put the execution timing of the same piece of code to the end of current event loop but not the beginning of the next. And we can achieve this by making use of CFRunLoopObserver.
CFRunLoopObserver observes all the input source waiting activities and the run loop's entry and exit activity.
public struct CFRunLoopActivity : OptionSetType {
public init(rawValue: CFOptionFlags)
public static var Entry: CFRunLoopActivity { get }
public static var BeforeTimers: CFRunLoopActivity { get }
public static var BeforeSources: CFRunLoopActivity { get }
public static var BeforeWaiting: CFRunLoopActivity { get }
public static var AfterWaiting: CFRunLoopActivity { get }
public static var Exit: CFRunLoopActivity { get }
public static var AllActivities: CFRunLoopActivity { get }
}
Among those activities, .AfterWaiting can be observed when current event loop is about to end, and .BeforeWaiting can be observed when the next event loop just has began.
As there is only one NSRunLoop instance per NSThread and NSRunLoop exactly drives the NSThread, we can consider that accesses come from the same NSRunLoop instance always never cross threads.
Based on points mentioned before, we can now write the code: an NSRunLoop-based task dispatcher:
import Foundation
import ObjectiveC
public struct Weak<T: AnyObject>: Hashable {
private weak var _value: T?
public weak var value: T? { return _value }
public init(_ aValue: T) { _value = aValue }
public var hashValue: Int {
guard let value = self.value else { return 0 }
return ObjectIdentifier(value).hashValue
}
}
public func ==<T: AnyObject where T: Equatable>(lhs: Weak<T>, rhs: Weak<T>)
-> Bool
{
return lhs.value == rhs.value
}
public func ==<T: AnyObject>(lhs: Weak<T>, rhs: Weak<T>) -> Bool {
return lhs.value === rhs.value
}
public func ===<T: AnyObject>(lhs: Weak<T>, rhs: Weak<T>) -> Bool {
return lhs.value === rhs.value
}
private var dispatchObserverKey =
"com.WeZZard.Nest.NSRunLoop.TaskDispatcher.DispatchObserver"
private var taskQueueKey =
"com.WeZZard.Nest.NSRunLoop.TaskDispatcher.TaskQueue"
private var taskAmendQueueKey =
"com.WeZZard.Nest.NSRunLoop.TaskDispatcher.TaskAmendQueue"
private typealias DeallocFunctionPointer =
@convention(c) (Unmanaged<NSRunLoop>, Selector) -> Void
private var original_dealloc_imp: IMP?
private let swizzled_dealloc_imp: DeallocFunctionPointer = {
(aSelf: Unmanaged<NSRunLoop>,
aSelector: Selector)
-> Void in
let unretainedSelf = aSelf.takeUnretainedValue()
if unretainedSelf.isDispatchObserverLoaded {
let observer = unretainedSelf.dispatchObserver
CFRunLoopObserverInvalidate(observer)
}
if let original_dealloc_imp = original_dealloc_imp {
let originalDealloc = unsafeBitCast(original_dealloc_imp,
DeallocFunctionPointer.self)
originalDealloc(aSelf, aSelector)
} else {
fatalError("The original implementation of dealloc for NSRunLoop cannot be found!")
}
}
public enum NSRunLoopTaskInvokeTiming: Int {
case NextLoopBegan
case CurrentLoopEnded
case Idle
}
extension NSRunLoop {
public func perform(closure: ()->Void) -> Task {
objc_sync_enter(self)
loadDispatchObserverIfNeeded()
let task = Task(self, closure)
taskQueue.append(task)
objc_sync_exit(self)
return task
}
public override class func initialize() {
super.initialize()
struct Static {
static var token: dispatch_once_t = 0
}
// make sure this isn't a subclass
if self !== NSRunLoop.self {
return
}
dispatch_once(&Static.token) {
let selectorDealloc: Selector = "dealloc"
original_dealloc_imp =
class_getMethodImplementation(self, selectorDealloc)
let swizzled_dealloc = unsafeBitCast(swizzled_dealloc_imp, IMP.self)
class_replaceMethod(self, selectorDealloc, swizzled_dealloc, "@:")
}
}
public final class Task {
private let weakRunLoop: Weak<NSRunLoop>
private var _invokeTiming: NSRunLoopTaskInvokeTiming
private var invokeTiming: NSRunLoopTaskInvokeTiming {
var theInvokeTiming: NSRunLoopTaskInvokeTiming = .NextLoopBegan
guard let amendQueue = weakRunLoop.value?.taskAmendQueue else {
fatalError("Accessing a dealloced run loop")
}
dispatch_sync(amendQueue) { () -> Void in
theInvokeTiming = self._invokeTiming
}
return theInvokeTiming
}
private var _modes: NSRunLoopMode
private var modes: NSRunLoopMode {
var theModes: NSRunLoopMode = []
guard let amendQueue = weakRunLoop.value?.taskAmendQueue else {
fatalError("Accessing a dealloced run loop")
}
dispatch_sync(amendQueue) { () -> Void in
theModes = self._modes
}
return theModes
}
private let closure: () -> Void
private init(_ runLoop: NSRunLoop, _ aClosure: () -> Void) {
weakRunLoop = Weak<NSRunLoop>(runLoop)
_invokeTiming = .NextLoopBegan
_modes = .defaultMode
closure = aClosure
}
public func forModes(modes: NSRunLoopMode) -> Task {
if let amendQueue = weakRunLoop.value?.taskAmendQueue {
dispatch_async(amendQueue) { [weak self] () -> Void in
self?._modes = modes
}
}
return self
}
public func when(invokeTiming: NSRunLoopTaskInvokeTiming) -> Task {
if let amendQueue = weakRunLoop.value?.taskAmendQueue {
dispatch_async(amendQueue) { [weak self] () -> Void in
self?._invokeTiming = invokeTiming
}
}
return self
}
}
private var isDispatchObserverLoaded: Bool {
return objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &dispatchObserverKey) !== nil
}
private func loadDispatchObserverIfNeeded() {
if !isDispatchObserverLoaded {
let invokeTimings: [NSRunLoopTaskInvokeTiming] =
[.CurrentLoopEnded, .NextLoopBegan, .Idle]
let activities =
CFRunLoopActivity(invokeTimings.map{ CFRunLoopActivity($0) })
let observer = CFRunLoopObserverCreateWithHandler(
kCFAllocatorDefault,
activities.rawValue,
true, 0,
handleRunLoopActivityWithObserver)
CFRunLoopAddObserver(getCFRunLoop(),
observer,
kCFRunLoopCommonModes)
let wrappedObserver = NSAssociated<CFRunLoopObserver>(observer)
objc_setAssociatedObject(self,
&dispatchObserverKey,
wrappedObserver,
.OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC)
}
}
private var dispatchObserver: CFRunLoopObserver {
loadDispatchObserverIfNeeded()
return (objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &dispatchObserverKey)
as! NSAssociated<CFRunLoopObserver>)
.value
}
private var taskQueue: [Task] {
get {
if let taskQueue = objc_getAssociatedObject(self,
&taskQueueKey)
as? [Task]
{
return taskQueue
} else {
let initialValue = [Task]()
objc_setAssociatedObject(self,
&taskQueueKey,
initialValue,
.OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC)
return initialValue
}
}
set {
objc_setAssociatedObject(self,
&taskQueueKey,
newValue,
.OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC)
}
}
private var taskAmendQueue: dispatch_queue_t {
if let taskQueue = objc_getAssociatedObject(self,
&taskAmendQueueKey)
as? dispatch_queue_t
{
return taskQueue
} else {
let initialValue =
dispatch_queue_create(
"com.WeZZard.Nest.NSRunLoop.TaskDispatcher.TaskAmendQueue",
DISPATCH_QUEUE_SERIAL)
objc_setAssociatedObject(self,
&taskAmendQueueKey,
initialValue,
.OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC)
return initialValue
}
}
private func handleRunLoopActivityWithObserver(observer: CFRunLoopObserver!,
activity: CFRunLoopActivity)
-> Void
{
var removedIndices = [Int]()
let runLoopMode: NSRunLoopMode = currentRunLoopMode
for (index, eachTask) in taskQueue.enumerate() {
let expectedRunLoopModes = eachTask.modes
let expectedRunLoopActivitiy =
CFRunLoopActivity(eachTask.invokeTiming)
let runLoopModesMatches = expectedRunLoopModes.contains(runLoopMode)
|| expectedRunLoopModes.contains(.commonModes)
let runLoopActivityMatches =
activity.contains(expectedRunLoopActivitiy)
if runLoopModesMatches && runLoopActivityMatches {
eachTask.closure()
removedIndices.append(index)
}
}
taskQueue.removeIndicesInPlace(removedIndices)
}
}
extension CFRunLoopActivity {
private init(_ invokeTiming: NSRunLoopTaskInvokeTiming) {
switch invokeTiming {
case .NextLoopBegan: self = .AfterWaiting
case .CurrentLoopEnded: self = .BeforeWaiting
case .Idle: self = .Exit
}
}
}
With the code before, we can now dispatch the execution of UICollectionView's reloadData() to the end of current event loop by such a piece of code:
NSRunLoop.currentRunLoop().perform({ () -> Void in
collectionView.reloadData()
}).when(.CurrentLoopEnded)
In fact, such an NSRunLoop based task dispatcher has already been in one of my personal used framework: Nest. And here is its repository on GitHub: https://github.com/WeZZard/Nest
