Pausing execution in a program.

Question

I'm developing a GUI for a game called Pig, where players take turns rolling the dice and accumulating points. I have made the computer players automatically keep rolling until they can no longer roll (if they happen to roll a 1 or have 20 more points than a human player). Here is my code for the computer:
if (comp) {
     while (!pass) {
          if (computerScore+roundScore>=humanScores+TURNOVER) {
               status = name+" has turned over the dice by default.";
               update();
               JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, status);
               status = " ";
               pass=true;
          } else {
               rollDice();
               update();
               /*try {
                    Thread.sleep(1000);
               catch (InterruptedException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
               //I want to use a Timer here, instead of JOptionPane.
               JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, name+" has rolled: "+toString());
               if (losePoints()) {
                    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, name+" got too ambitious and rolled snake eyes!\n"+name+" lost all points.");
               } else
                    if (loseRound()) {
                         JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, name+" got too ambitious and rolled a one!\n"+name+" lost all points for this round.");
                    } else
                         roundScore += points;
               if (computerScore+roundScore>=GOAL) {
                    computerScore += roundScore;
                    status = name+" has won the game!";
                    pass=true;
                    end=true;
               update();
}As you can see, I've already tried pausing with a Thread.sleep(delay) function. I have found that the only thing that works is using a JOptionPane to stop execution. The problem with the Thread.sleep() is that the drawing of the GUI stops working while the computer never stops (I want it to pause between each time it rolls the dice) taking turns to roll its dice (until it passes).
Everything works perfectly with a JOptionPane, but I don't want to display what the computer rolls each time (because the update() method takes care of that already). Here is the code for my update() method:
public void update() {
     turnLabel.setText("Player: "+name);
     roundScoreLabel.setText("Score for this round: "+roundScore);
     statusLabel.setText(status);
     remove(dice);
     add(dice, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
     statusPanel.setBackground(Color.gray);
     revalidate();
     repaint();
}Any suggestions on how to pause while still redrawing the GUI components?

Answer 1

I don't think this can be that short because my code is in its draft state, since I'm commenting all the possible ways to pause the execution; however, I will give you a summary of my PigPlayer class (the main method is totally irrelevant in this case):
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class PigPlayer extends JPanel {
     private Dice dice;
     private int points, humanScore, computerScore, roundScore;
     private boolean comp, endTurn, time;
     public static boolean end, pass;
     private String name, info;
     private static String status;
     private static final int GOAL=100, TURNOVER=20;
     public static int humanScores;
     private JLabel roundScoreLabel, turnLabel, infoLabel, statusLabel;
     private JPanel turnPanel, statusPanel, musicPanel, centerPanel;
     private Timer timer;
     public PigPlayer() {
     public PigPlayer(String name, boolean comp) {
          //  Sets up a PigPlayer's JPanel with the specified information.
     public void update() {
          //  Updates the JLabels and the Dice pictures that were added to the JPanel above.
        //  I leave the go() method, for this is the part being worked on.
     public void go() {
          if (!end) {
               if (!comp) {
                    rollDice();
                    if (losePoints()) {
                         JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, name+" got too ambitious and rolled snake eyes!\n"+name+" lost all points.");
                    } else
                         if (loseRound()) {
                              JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, name+" got too ambitious and rolled a one!\n"+name+" lost all points for this round.");
                         } else
                              roundScore += points;
                    if (humanScore+roundScore>=GOAL) {
                         humanScore += roundScore;
                         status = name+" has won the game!";
                         end=true;
                    update();
               if (comp) {
                    while (!pass) {
                         /*timer = new Timer(1000, new ActionListener () {
                              public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                                   time = true;
                         timer.start();*/
                         if (time) {
                              if (computerScore+roundScore>=humanScores+TURNOVER) {
                                   status = name+" has turned over the dice by default.";
                                   update();
                                   JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, status);
                                   status = " ";
                                   pass=true;
                              } else {
                                   rollDice();
                                   update();
                                   /*try {
                                        Thread.sleep(1000);
                                   catch (InterruptedException e) {
                                        e.printStackTrace();
                                   //I want to use a Timer here, instead of JOptionPane.
                                   //JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, name+" has rolled: "+toString());
                                   if (losePoints()) {
                                        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, name+" got too ambitious and rolled snake eyes!\n"+name+" lost all points.");
                                   } else
                                        if (loseRound()) {
                                             JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, name+" got too ambitious and rolled a one!\n"+name+" lost all points for this round.");
                                        } else
                                             roundScore += points;
                                   if (computerScore+roundScore>=GOAL) {
                                        computerScore += roundScore;
                                        status = name+" has won the game!";
                                        pass=true;
                                        end=true;
                                   update();
                                       time = false;
                    //timer.stop();
        // Some code executed OUTSIDE of PigPlayer when this PigPlayer is finished with its turn.
     public void pass() {
          if (!comp) {
               humanScore += roundScore;
               roundScore=0;
               if (humanScore>=humanScores)
                    humanScores = humanScore;
          else {
               computerScore += roundScore;
               roundScore=0;
          update();
        //  This PigPlayer rolls its set of Dice.
     public void rollDice() {
          dice.roll();
          points = dice.getValue();
       //  When this PigPlayer loses a round or all of its points.
     public boolean loseRound() {
          if (dice.firstDie()==1 || dice.secondDie()==1) {
               roundScore = 0;
               pass=true;
               update();
               return true;
          else
               return false;
     public boolean losePoints() {
          if (dice.firstDie()==1 && dice.secondDie()==1) {
               humanScore = 0;
               computerScore = 0;
               roundScore = 0;
               pass=true;
               update();
               return true;
          else
               return false;
}I left out most of the methods, for they don't even apply to this class or are commented parts that are simply methods using Thread.sleep(int delay) or other.
Does this help at all, or did you want something different?