Preventing parallel GUI functions from overrunning matlab

Hello! I've run into a brick wall, and I believe that it's because I don't understand how matlab handles parallel functions.

First of all, lets say that I have a GUI with a single button in the middle

figure1 = figure; button1 = uicontrol('style','pushbutton','position',[.5 .5 .5 .5]);

And lets say that this button's callback function opens up a new figure to say, change the color of the figure background with another function that I've written.

set(button1,'callback',@changeBkgrdColor)

Now, if the user clicks on the button again without ending the changebkgrdColor function, it'll open up a second instance of my changeBkgrdColor function.

If you're looking to crash matlab, you can open up about 30 parallel functions and from that point, no more functions will open, matlab freaks, and the only way to fix it is to ctrl+c on the command line or end matlab's process.

Is there a way to break out of a function with something like a handle reference?

Answer 1

[Joseph Cheng]

Well what you can do to stop this from happening is to deactivate the pushbutton until the the function is completed.

function testing()
myvar = 5;
  figure
  uicontrol('Style','pushbutton','String','new','Callback',{@pushbutton_callback,myvar});

end
function pushbutton_callback(hObject,eventdata,x)
  set(hObject,'Enable','off')
    figure,plot(rand(x));
    pause(10)
    set(hObject,'Enable','on')
end

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/newsreader/view_thread/246447 speaks to what you are trying to do look for in the breaking out of a running function. I do not think it can readily be done.

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/newsreader/view_thread/286204 does mention something but it all depends on your implementations

[Charles Miller]

This works perfectly, I forgot about the enable property, Thanks!

edit: Actually, in the event that I need to use the function for a variable set of pushbuttons or conditions, it would be nice if the function simply didn't allow itself to be called again

[Joseph Cheng]

In that case, you could at the beginning of the function have a FLAG check to see if it should run again or not. However i do not exactly know if you can get that flag updated while another instance of the function is being run such that the second instance has an update. When i get the chance i'll run a test and get back to you.

Answer 2

[per isakson]

See the property, Interruptible

    Interruptible
        {on} | off
        Callback routine interruption mode. Controls whether a object
        callback function can be interrupted by subsequently invoked 
        callbacks.

.

In response to comments:

See also Control Callback Execution and Interruption

.

Try

    uicontrol( 'Callback', 'interrupt_test'  ...
             , 'Interruptible', 'off'        ...
             , 'BusyAction', 'queue'         )

and

    uicontrol( 'Callback', 'interrupt_test'  ...
             , 'Interruptible', 'off'        ...
             , 'BusyAction', 'cancel'        )

where

    function interrupt_test
       fprintf('responding at: %s\n', datestr( now, 'MM:SS.FFF') )
       pause( 2 )
    end

[Charles Miller]

Wouldn't this property be set to on by default?

[Charles Miller]

AHH

set(gco,'interruptible','off') would prevent subsequent functions being called, assuming it's called from an object, which might be the problem.

[per isakson]

"which might be the problem" . What problem do you refer to?

I added an example to my answer