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Creating new threads from another thread

Submitted by enzom83 on Mon, 11/29/2010 - 05:47.
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Well, I should create a class (called Server), which represents a multi-thread server. This class consists of a constructor, where I can read a specific configuration file to load the port on which the server should listen and other configuration information.
In addition, the Server class contains a list attribute declared as private and some public methods that allow you to change this list.

Any request to modify the list by a client must be handled by a thread. To this end, the server must wait for incoming connections (using a ServerSocket accept), and for each connection request, it must create a new thread.

How can I start the server
, implemented in Server class, without adding additional methods to the class Server itself?

I thought I'd create a primary thread in the constructor of the Server class: I could put the code that creates a new ServerSocket, etc., and that creates others secondary threads inside the run method of this this primary thread. For example (try/catch omitted for simplicity),

public class Server {
    private Vector<Object> list;
   
    public Server() {
        // load configuration file
        ...
        // creates and starts a PrimaryThread
    }
}
public class PrimaryThread implements Runnable {
    ...
    public PrimaryThread(...) {
        ...
    }

    ...
   
    public void run() {
        ServerSocket listening = new ServerSocket(4444);
        ...
        while(true) {
            listening.accept();
            ....
            // creates a new SecondaryThread
        }
    }
}

public class SecondaryThread implements Runnable {
    ...
    public SecondaryThread(...) {
        ...
    }

    ...
   
    public void run() {
        // reply to the client
    }
}

public class MainClass {
    public static void main(...) {
        Server myServer = new Server();
    }
}

The above code should work, but I wonder if it is a good practice: it is a good way to program? Or would it be more correct to add a start and a stop methods to the Server class and remove the PrimaryThread?

Thanks a lot!