Hey everyone, just converted a class from .net 1.1 to .net 2.0 and the
compiler has warned me of some deprecated usage of functions :(.  Namely
thread.suspend and thread.resume.

My class was quite clean and the logic was sound (ie it worked).  Now I was
considering writing the main loop to grab a semaphore whilst executing and
then play a file, however, I wish to have no limit on the number of sounds
that can be queued up by the player, so I can't use a semaphore as I cannot
know how many sounds can enqueue at any one time, and I CANNOT have the main
thread block in its call to "playsound" as would happen if I attempted to
"release" whilst the semaphore was already held.

I was considering using a monitor but then I run into the double check
problem, I need to check the monitor is released at just the right time and
all sorts of issues happen.

I suppose if someone could point me in the right direction for a good
technique to use.  Essentially the class needs to return from playsound
immediately after enqueuing the file name. The main thread should wake up
any time that a sound is added to the queue, dequeue the sound and then play
it.  Order and Timing are important (ie sounds must be played in the order
they are received, and all sounds in the queue MUST be played without a
delay (ie, Attention, "name", "Message" would be a common usage of the
function).  I just can't think of a construct that would work efficiently.
And I'm certainly not asking people to write code for me, but if you can
point in the right direction I'd really appreciate it.

My CURRENT class is listed below.
Public Class AsyncSounds

   Implements IDisposable

   Private PlayQueue As System.Collections.Queue

   Private SoundThread As System.Threading.Thread

   Private Exiting As Boolean = False

   Public Sub New()

       PlayQueue = New System.Collections.Queue

       SoundThread = New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf PlayThread)

       SoundThread.Name = "Sound Playing Thread"

       SoundThread.Start()

       Console.WriteLine("Sound Thread: Starting the Sound Play Thread")

   End Sub

   Public Sub PlaySound(ByVal SoundFile As String)

       SyncLock (PlayQueue)

           PlayQueue.Enqueue(SoundFile)

       End SyncLock

       Console.WriteLine("Main Thread: Added sound to queue.")

       If  SoundThread.ThreadState = Threading.ThreadState.Suspended Then

           SoundThread.Resume() ''If the player is asleep, wake it up.

       End If

   End Sub

   Private Sub PlayThread()

       Dim Count As Integer = 0

       Dim SoundFile As String = String.Empty

       Do

           If Exiting Then

               Console.WriteLine("Sound Thread: Terminating")

               Exit Sub

           End If

           SyncLock (PlayQueue)

               Count = PlayQueue.Count

           End SyncLock

           If Count > 0 Then

               SyncLock (PlayQueue)

                   SoundFile = CType(PlayQueue.Dequeue, String)

               End SyncLock

               Console.WriteLine("Sound Thread: Playing Sound. Count = " &
Count.ToString)

               SoundClass.PlaySoundFile(SoundFile, True)

           Else

               Console.WriteLine("Sound Thread: Suspending")

               System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.Suspend()

           End If

       Loop

   End Sub

   Public Sub Dispose() Implements System.IDisposable.Dispose

       If Not Exiting Then

           Exiting = True

           If SoundThread.ThreadState <> Threading.ThreadState.Running Then
SoundThread.Resume()

           SoundThread.Join()

           GC.SuppressFinalize(Me)

       End If

   End Sub

End Class