Throttling javafx gui updates

This is the idiom used in the Task class for implementing the updateMessage(...) method, and other similar methods. It provides a nice, robust solution to avoid flooding the FX Application Thread:

import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;import javafx.application.Application;import javafx.application.Platform;import javafx.geometry.Insets;import javafx.geometry.Pos;import javafx.scene.Scene;import javafx.scene.control.Label;import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;import javafx.stage.Stage;public class ThrottlingCounter extends Application {    @Override    public void start(Stage primaryStage) {        final AtomicLong counter = new AtomicLong(-1);        final Label label = new Label();        final Thread countThread = new Thread(new Runnable() {            @Override            public void run() {                long count = 0 ;                while (true) {                    count++ ;                    if (counter.getAndSet(count) == -1) {                        updateUI(counter, label);                    }                }            }        });        countThread.setDaemon(true);        countThread.start();        VBox root = new VBox();        root.getChildren().add(label);        root.setPadding(new Insets(5));        root.setAlignment(Pos.CENTER);        Scene scene = new Scene(root, 150, 100);        primaryStage.setScene(scene);        primaryStage.show();    }    private void updateUI(final AtomicLong counter,            final Label label) {        Platform.runLater(new Runnable() {            @Override            public void run() {                final String msg = String.format("Count: %,d", counter.getAndSet(-1));                label.setText(msg);            }        });    }    public static void main(String[] args) {        launch(args);    }}

The AtomicLong holds the current value to be used to update the Label. The count continually increments and updates the AtomicLong, but only schedules a call to Platform.runLater(...) if it's current value is -1. The Platform.runLater(...) updates the Label with the current value from the AtomicLong and flips the AtomicLong back to -1, indicating that it's ready for a new update.

The effect here is to schedule new calls to Platform.runLater(...) whenever the FX Application Thread is ready to handle them. There's no hard-coded time interval which could need tuning.