Flyweight Design Pattern in Java

8 shared HandlerThreads in a ThreadPool

The ColorBox class has now become a Flyweight: the color changing and painting capability remains "intrinsic", and the threaded behavior has been made "extrinsic".

The ThreadPool class plays the role of the Factory. As ColorBox objects are created, they register themselves with the ThreadPool object. The latter launches 8 "handler" threads. When each thread is swapped into the CPU, it selects a random Flyweight from the ThreadPool's cache, and asks the object to changeColor().

class ColorBox extends Canvas {
    private Color  curColor = getColor();
    private static Color[]  colors = { Color.black, Color.blue, Color.cyan,
            Color.darkGray, Color.gray, Color.green, Color.lightGray, Color.red,
            Color.magenta, Color.orange, Color.pink, Color.white, Color.yellow };

    public ColorBox(ThreadPool tp) {
        tp.register(this);
    }

    private static Color getColor() {
        return colors[(int)(Math.random() * 1000) % colors.length];
    }

    public void changeColor() {
        curColor = getColor();
        repaint();
    }

    public void paint(Graphics g) {
        g.setColor(curColor);
        g.fillRect( 0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight() );
    }
}

class ThreadPool {
    private Vector boxes = new Vector();
    private int pause;

    class HandlerThread extends Thread {
        public void run() {
            while(true) {
                ((ColorBox)boxes.elementAt(
                        (int)(Math.random()*1000) % boxes.size() )).changeColor();
                try {
                    Thread.sleep(pause);
                } catch(InterruptedException ignored) {}
            }
        }
    }

    public ThreadPool(int p) {
        pause = p;
    }

    public void register(ColorBox r) {
        boxes.addElement(r);
    }

    public void start() {
        int NUM_THREADS = 8;
        for (int i = 0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++) {
            new HandlerThread().start();
        }
    }
}

public class FlyweightDemo {
    public static void main( String[] args ) {
        int size = 8;
        int pause = 100;
        if (args.length > 0) {
            size  = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
        }
        if (args.length > 1) {
            pause = Integer.parseInt(args[1]);
        }
        ThreadPool tp = new ThreadPool(pause);
        Frame frame = new Frame("ColorBoxes - 8 shared HandlerThreads");
        frame.setLayout(new GridLayout(size, size));
        for (int i=0; i < size * size; i++) {
            frame.add(new ColorBox(tp));
        }
        frame.setSize(500, 400);
        frame.setVisible(true);
        frame.addWindowListener( new WindowAdapter() {
            public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
                System.exit(0);
            }
        });
        tp.start();
    }
}

Output

D:> java ColorBoxes 18 50
        produces 324 boxes, 8 threads, and 50 millisecond sleep()
            performance is very much improved

Java	Flyweight in Java	Flyweight in Java	Flyweight in Java	Flyweight in Java
C++	Flyweight in C++: Before and after	Flyweight in C++
PHP	Flyweight in PHP
Python	Flyweight in Python

Flyweight Design Pattern in Java

8 shared HandlerThreads in a ThreadPool

Output

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