Ping and write the status of a timer on a GUI thread

Question

I am running a timer for updating some of my operations, such as buffers. But I also want ping to be added.

It is added, but I think it can be improved. This is because I think it's running on the GUI thread, which is not preferred as it will freeze the GUI if something goes wrong with it. I think such a thing has occurred, and I haven't been able to locate the problem until now.

But, I am not asking for the solution for that problem, as there are other stuff. I am basically asking for ways to improve this piece of code as it doesn't seem to be optimal in any way.

private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
        if (waveProvider.BufferedDuration.Milliseconds > 40 && AudioDevices.SelectedItem.ToString() != "Wasapi Loopback")
        {
            waveProvider.ClearBuffer();
            TimesBufferClear++;
        }
        currping.Text = "Current Buffer: " + waveProvider.BufferedDuration.Milliseconds.ToString() + " Clear: " + TimesBufferClear.ToString() + " Ping: " + pingSender.Send(otherPartyIP.Address).RoundtripTime.ToString() + " Buffer: " + SendStream.BufferMilliseconds;
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message + "Timer");
    }
}

As you can see, I have a label which contains all the things I want to update. It is fine, and I'd rather have one than many in this case.

But is this a good way to do it? It doesn't seem that good when I look at it; it's just a mess, even if it works.

Also, the PingSender is created and disposed of outside of the thread. I suppose that is better than just "using" it every timer run.

Are there any ideas of what can be done to improve it?

Answer 1

As it is not really much code, let us just focus on the label part and a little naming.

TimesBufferClear++;

If this is a variable, we should use camelCase casing for the name. If it is a property it follows the naming convention.

currping  

Can be renamed to currentPingStatus, which is more meaningful.

Now let us refactor the assignment to the Text property of this label:

String formatPattern = "Current Buffer: {0} Clear: {1} Ping: {2} Buffer: {3}";

currentPingStatus.Text = String.Format(formatPattern,
         waveProvider.BufferedDuration.Milliseconds.ToString(),
         TimesBufferClear.ToString(),
         pingSender.Send(otherPartyIP.Address).RoundtripTime.ToString(),
         SendStream.BufferMilliseconds);