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Hi All,

I have a multi-threaded application.  Within the application is a series of
functions that are called through a socketed interface that handle some rather
time consuming operations.  There is a hand shaking protocol that allows the top
level GUI to know when the low level software has completed the functionality,
and I've implemented a JProgressBar to show the user how far along int he
process these functions are.

Unfortunately, the GUI will not update for me.  I've tried everything from
repaint()/revalidate() to using a Timer to using Thread.yield(...) and
Thread.sleep(...).  The user selects a file from a standard file chooser dialog,
and once the file has been selected the file chooser dialog closes but the GUI
beneath it does not redraw the area over which the file chooser dialog was
placed.  Following, the progress bar should be updated periodically as new
messages are received back from the low level software indicating a portion of
the work is completed.  The low level functionality is not all written in Java,
and there are more than just two threads involved here, but I'm sure this should
be doable somehow.

The basic flow is like this:

1.  GUI informs low level S/W to execution some function.
2.  Low level S/W sends periodic updates while the GUI waits on some already
known condition to be met indicating the operation is complete.
3.  GUI continues on its merry way.

The wait loop in the GUI software looks like this:

timer.start();
while( curTimerLoc < finalTimerLoc ) {
   msg = DbgSocket.requestMessage();
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

^^ Your GUI thread is suspended here. ^^

   if( msg != null ) {
       curTimerLoc = msg.lastOffset;
   }
}
I currently have a timer implemented that should update the progress bar:

timer = new Timer( 1000, new ActionListener() {
   public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent evt ) {
       System.out.println( "tick!" );
       dbgProg.updateProgressBar( curTimerLoc );
       if( curTimerLoc >= finalTimerLoc ) {
           dbgProg.setMessage( "Ready" );
           timer.stop();
       }
   }
});
UpdateProgressBar looks like this:

       public void updateProgressBar( int curLoc ) {
           progressBar.setValue( curLoc );
       }
The "tick!" message I have in the timer is displayed only one time during
execution currently, and that's after the time consuming operation has
completed.  I got the timer idea from reading the Java tutorials on this very
subject, but it still doesn't work for me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Your problem is caused by suspending the GUI thread
waiting for a message from DbgSocket.requestMessage().

Whatever thread is posting a message to DbgSocket,
it should instead call SwingUtilities.invokeLater(Runnable)
to update the offset. Get rid of that wait loop in the GUI.