An EventGenerator is a source of Events. An EventGenerator is registered with an EventDispatcher which repeatedly polls all registered EventGenerators for new Events. Events are then placed on an event queue for processing by the EventProcessor. The EventGenerator is responsible for returning a list of Events that have occurred since the previous poll.

Users are expected to either create their own subclasses that override the get_events method. Alternatively, users can pass a block as part of the constructor. The block will be executed upon each invocation of get_events by the EventDispatcher.

Creates an EventGenerator. If a block is provided, it will be executed upon each invocation of get_events. This provides a very simple means to creating generators.

Returns an array of events that have occurred since the last time the EventGenerator was polled. If no events have occurred, it returns an empty array. This method should be overridden by a concrete implementation. If a block was supplied to the constructor, it will be executed upon invocation of this method to return an array of Events.

Starts the EventGenerator. This method is optional and not all implementations will need to be started. It is invoked when the EventDispatcher is started.

Stops the EventGenerator. This method is optional and not all implementations will need to be stopped. It is invoked when the EventDispatcher is stopped and has been provided to permit a clean shutdown of the framework.