Has my Thread died?

Question

Hi
I'm working on a two way module, a user connects and a thread is started to listen for incoming messages. Similar to an IM.
I'll call one chat client the server and the other the client. The server waits for an incoming connection and then starts a thread to listen for incoming messages....here's the thread.
public Chatter(Player chatPlayer) {
     super();
thisPlayer = chatPlayer;
     public void run() {
public void run() {
     try {
     while (true) {
          if (thisPlayer.chattr != null) {
          line=thisPlayer.chattr.getln();
          if (line.equals("<incoming chat>")) {
          user_says(thisPlayer.name + ": " + thisPlayer.chattr.getln());
          } else { TextIO.putln("LINE IS NULL");}
} catch (TextReader.Error e) {
TextIO.putln("CHAT Disconnection!");
TextIO.putln(e.getMessage());
     } //end run()
thisPlayer.chattr is a text reader stream set up upon earlier connection and Player is a class containing name, age etc, and chattr.
I have a problem that if the client disconnects by closing the chat window, the exception is raised and when I try to restart the above thread (by calling it's start() method as chat window is restarted), nothing appears to happen. I call chatter1.start() but the run() method does not run. chatter1 is an instance of Chatter already established.
Here's where I start the thread...
if (line.equals("<connect> 1 <chat>")) {
player1.chattr = in; // input stream
player1.chatpw = out; // output stream
if (player1.chatpw == null) { TextIO.putln("NULL");}
TextIO.putln("Chat User " + line + " has chatconnected");;;
          chatter1.start();
I think the thread has died due to the run() method raising an exception, but how do I create a new one? I can't keep creating new instances of the thread as I'd run out of variable names!
Thanks for any help as been thinking about this for too long.
Chris

Answer 1

I can't keep creating new instances of the thread as
s I'd run out of variable names! You're confusing creating a new thread with needing to use yet another variable name. You don't. Just do:
chatter1 = new Thread...
(or whatever type chatter1 is). You don't need another variable to do this.