ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Testing > Procedures > Running procedures > Errors and warnings while running a procedure > Warning: The procedure was unable to keep up with the events generated by the test.

Warning: The procedure was unable to keep up with the events generated by the test.

Description

As a test runs, it continually generates 'test events' which are the things that happen due to animal movement, I/O inputs, etc. All of these 'test events' are passed to each procedure to deal with.

A procedure takes each of these test events and runs as many statements as it can, based on that event. If the procedure is currently in a Wait until statement, then it won't do anything unless the 'test event' that it receives is the thing it's waiting for. If it is, then it moves to the next statement; otherwise, it will go no further and will wait for the next 'test event' to see if that is what the procedure is waiting for.

If a procedure can't immediately handle a test event (if, for example, it's in the middle of processing the previous event), then this event will be put in a queue for the procedure to deal with when it can. However, if the procedure is stuck in a loop for some reason, or the procedure receives a great many events in quick succession, then the queue will soon build up and the procedure won't be able to deal with it fast enough.

Often, the procedure will finish what it's currently doing and will start to process the queue of events again. If this doesn't happen (i.e. the queue of events waiting to be processed does not reduce in size), then the procedure will generate this warning. The procedure will carry on running, but it does usually indicate a problem with the way that the procedure has been written, since it can't keep up with the 'test events' that are being generated. The best way to fix such a problem is to ensure that the procedure regularly waits for things to happen using a Wait until statement, since 'waiting' is what empties the queue quickest and allows other procedures to have a chance at processing test events too.

If you're still not sure why you're getting this warning, then please contact ANY-maze Support and we'll be happy to help.

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ANY-maze help topic T0541