How do you expect a bool to stay true?

Question

I have this method async currently waiting for a time declared by me. The program first restarts the boolean result and then send commands to a serial that after a certain time returns in my program the results in that same boolean.

But it’s obviously bad practice I need to set the time "hard coded" why for some reason can get the answer faster than expected, or even slower. Below a sample of how is the code:

public async Task StartNewTest(TestType test)
{
   double time = 0;
   switch(test)
   {
     case TestType.Alerts:
        time = 20000;
        AlertOK = false;
        SendSerial("A");
     case TestType.Lights:
        time = 18000;
        LightsOK = false;
        SendSerial("L");
   }
   await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(time));
}

So it’s functional. But I’d like to stop using this form this time, waiting for Boolean AlertOK stick around true for example.

Like it was (just an idea). await AlertOK == true

Answer 1

I don’t know how the method called yours is implemented StartNewTest, but you can start this method in another thread:

await Task.Factory.StartNew(async () =>
{           
    await StartNewText(TestType);
});

This allows us to use a while without halting the UI:

case TestType.Lights:
{
    LightsOK = false;
    SendSerial("L");
    while(AlertOK == false) {}
    break;
}

This way you can remove the await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(time)) and your method will stay in there until the variable AlertOK become true.