Menu and Thread.sleep(5000) or Thread.currentThread.sleep(5000)

Question

Hi,
I am using JMenu and switchable JPanels.
When I click on a MenuItem the follownig code should starts
    cards.add(listenPanel,  "listenPanel");
    cardLayout.show(cards, "listenPanel");
    try{
      Thread.sleep(5000); //in ms
      PlayMP3Thread sound = new PlayMP3Thread("sound/ping.mp3");
    } catch(Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }It seems to be what I want to reach, but it does not work the way I want it to.
I would like the Panel to show right away, then wait 5s and then play the sound.
BUT what it does is freez the unfolded menu for 5s, then plays the sound and after that it shows the new Plane.
Can you tell me why this is??

Answer 1

This might be what you want
package tjacobs.thread;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.util.concurrent.Semaphore;
import tjacobs.ui.Eyes;
import tjacobs.ui.util.WindowUtilities;
public class ThreadForMultipleAnytimeRuns extends Thread {
     private Runnable mRunnable;
     private Semaphore mSemaphore;
     public ThreadForMultipleAnytimeRuns(Runnable arg0) {
          super();
          init(arg0);
     private void init(Runnable r) {
          mRunnable = r;
          mSemaphore = new Semaphore(0);
          setDaemon(true);
     public ThreadForMultipleAnytimeRuns(Runnable arg0, String arg1) {
          super(arg1);
          init(arg0);
     public ThreadForMultipleAnytimeRuns(ThreadGroup arg0, Runnable arg1, String arg2) {
          super(arg0, arg2);
          init(arg1);
     public void run () {
          try {
               while (!isInterrupted()) {
                    mSemaphore.acquire();
                    mRunnable.run();
          catch (InterruptedException ex) {}
     public void runAgain() {
          mSemaphore.release();
     public void runAgain(int numTimes) {
          mSemaphore.release(numTimes);
     public void stopThread() {
          interrupt();
     public int getSemaphoreCount() {
          return mSemaphore.availablePermits();
     public Runnable getRunnable() {
          return mRunnable;
     //The setRunnable method is simply not safe, and
     //trying to make it safe is going to effect performance
     //Plus I can't really see a gain in being able to set
     //The runnable on one of these threads. Just create
     //a new one!
     public synchronized void setRunnable(Runnable r) {
          if (getSemaphoreCount() > 0) {
               try {
                    wait();
               catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                    return;
          mRunnable = r;
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          final Eyes eyes = new Eyes(true);
          //eyes.addMouseMotionListener(eyes);
          Runnable r = new Runnable() {
               public void run() {
                    eyes.blink();
                    try {
                         Thread.sleep(100);
                    catch(InterruptedException ex) {}
          final ThreadForMultipleAnytimeRuns ar = new ThreadForMultipleAnytimeRuns(r);
          ar.start();
          eyes.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
               public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent me) {
                    ar.runAgain();
          eyes.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(60,20));
          WindowUtilities.visualize(eyes);
//          JFrame jf = new JFrame();
//          jf.add(eyes);
//          jf.pack();
//          jf.setLocation(100,100);
//          jf.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
//          jf.setVisible(true);
}