multithreading - Python threading - Is this what I need? -

i'm writing python script control various hardware parts of setup. have state want keep while other parts of script thing. think while loop stopping other parts of script running. need introduce threading that loop can continue run until tell stop?

not sure if looking @ right method solve issue.

edit: have pasted of code whole thing quite large.

this listens usb midi device messages of specific types , performs actions based on input values listed in inst

while true:     b = f.read(1)     s='rawdatab:'+  hex(ord(b))     print s      if b == '\x90':         note=true     elif note:         if b in inst:             print "isnote:"  + str( int(hex(ord(b)), 16))             noteaction(inst.get(b))         note=false      if b== '\xb0':         controller=true      elif controller:     #grab controller byte 1, value byte 2         bcount = bcount +1         cn=hex(ord(b))  #hex value of byte         if bcount == 1:             cntrl=cn             if cntrl== '0xd':                 fspeedc= 1                 print 'fspeed cnum'                   elif bcount == 2:                 cval=cn          if fspeedc == 1:             fspeed= int(cval,16)             print 'fspeed=' + str(fspeed)             motorcontrol('fwd',fspeed,0)             print 'moving forward'             print "cn:" + str(cntrl) + ", val:" + str(cval)             print "bcount: " + str(bcount)             bcount=0             cvalue=true      elif cvalue:         val=int(hex(ord(b)), 16)         #print "2val:" + str(val)                 if val != -1 :             print "do something"              cvalue=false             print "cn:" + str(cntrl) + ", val:" + str(val)         controller=false  # function guess can in infinite loop mode when want # while running still want above code monitor incoming midi bytes x=0 while true:     gpio.wait_for_edge(11, gpio.falling)       #prevent bounce     time.sleep(0.2)     x=x+1     print x     if x % 2 == 0:          controlapairofpins("17","1","24","0")          print "forward"     else:          controlapairofpins("17","0","24","1")          print "backward" 

you can use python threading module if want leave loop running while doing else. example of is

import time import threading  def loop(n=10):     while n>0:         print n         n -= 1         time.sleep(1)  t = threading.thread(target=loop) print 'hello world' t.start() 

hello world 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1