Also using asyncio for the display thread.

When I tried this before threading was working better.
Now asyncio is doing better.

Recently, exceptions were happening occasionaly in the update
thread. I guess due to races. They should go away now.

From now on, if a coroutine takes too long the interface will hitch.
Should investigate if sync_to_filesystem is taking too long and
if it can yield.

There are no uses of threading now.

fill3.py

@@ -4,13 +4,13 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2015-2016 Andrew Hamilton. All rights reserved.
 # Licensed under the Artistic License 2.0.
 
+import asyncio
 import collections
 import contextlib
 import itertools
 import os
 import signal
 import sys
-import threading
 
 import urwid
 import urwid.raw_display
@@ -401,6 +401,9 @@ class Placeholder:
         return self.widget.appearance(dimensions)
 
 
+##########################
+
+
 def draw_screen(widget):
     appearance = widget.appearance(os.get_terminal_size())
     print(terminal.move(0, 0), *appearance, sep="", end="", flush=True)
@@ -433,43 +436,27 @@ def _urwid_screen():
         screen.stop()
 
 
-_UPDATE_THREAD_STOPPED = threading.Event()
-
-
-def _update_screen(main_widget, appearance_changed_event):
+async def _update_screen(screen_widget, appearance_changed_event):
     while True:
-        appearance_changed_event.wait()
+        await appearance_changed_event.wait()
         appearance_changed_event.clear()
-        if _UPDATE_THREAD_STOPPED.is_set():
-            break
-        patch_screen(main_widget)
+        patch_screen(screen_widget)
 
 
-def main(loop, appearance_changed_event, screen, exit_loop=None):
+def main(loop, appearance_changed_event, screen_widget, exit_loop=None):
     appearance_changed_event.set()
-    update_display_thread = threading.Thread(
-        target=_update_screen, args=(screen, appearance_changed_event),
-        daemon=True)
-
-    def exit_loop_():
-        loop.stop()
     if exit_loop is None:
-        exit_loop = exit_loop_
+        exit_loop = loop.stop
     loop.add_signal_handler(signal.SIGWINCH, appearance_changed_event.set)
     loop.add_signal_handler(signal.SIGINT, exit_loop)
     loop.add_signal_handler(signal.SIGTERM, exit_loop)
+    asyncio.ensure_future(_update_screen(screen_widget,
+                                         appearance_changed_event))
     with terminal.hidden_cursor():
         with _urwid_screen() as urwid_screen:
 
             def on_input(urwid_screen):
                 for event in urwid_screen.get_input():
-                    screen.on_input_event(event)
+                    screen_widget.on_input_event(event)
             loop.add_reader(sys.stdin, on_input, urwid_screen)
-            update_display_thread.start()
-            try:
-                loop.run_forever()
-            finally:
-                _UPDATE_THREAD_STOPPED.set()
-                appearance_changed_event.set()
-                update_display_thread.join()
-                # loop.close()
+            loop.run_forever()

vigil

@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ import signal
 import subprocess
 import sys
 import tempfile
-import threading
 import time
 
 import docopt
@@ -198,7 +197,6 @@ class Summary:
         self._view_widget = fill3.View.from_widget(self)
         self.__cursor_position = (0, 0)
         self.closest_placeholder_generator = None
-        self._lock = threading.Lock()
         self._cache = {}
         self.is_directory_sort = True
         self._max_width = None
@@ -296,12 +294,11 @@ class Summary:
                         yield result
 
     def get_closest_placeholder(self):
-        with self._lock:
-            try:
-                return self.closest_placeholder_generator.send(None)
-            except AttributeError:
-                self.closest_placeholder_generator = self._placeholder_spiral()
-                return self.closest_placeholder_generator.send(None)
+        try:
+            return self.closest_placeholder_generator.send(None)
+        except AttributeError:
+            self.closest_placeholder_generator = self._placeholder_spiral()
+            return self.closest_placeholder_generator.send(None)
 
     def appearance_dimensions(self):
         return self._max_path_length + 1 + self._max_width, len(self._column)
@@ -919,7 +916,6 @@ def load_state(pickle_path, jobs_added_event, appearance_changed_event,
         screen._appearance_changed_event = appearance_changed_event
         screen._main_loop = loop
         summary = screen._summary
-        summary._lock = threading.Lock()
         summary._jobs_added_event = jobs_added_event
         summary._root_path = root_path
         log = screen._log
@@ -943,7 +939,7 @@ def main(root_path, loop, worker_count=None, is_sandboxed=True,
         worker_count = multiprocessing.cpu_count() * 2
     pickle_path = os.path.join(tools.CACHE_PATH, "summary.pickle")
     jobs_added_event = asyncio.Event()
-    appearance_changed_event = threading.Event()
+    appearance_changed_event = asyncio.Event()
     summary, screen, log, is_first_run = load_state(
         pickle_path, jobs_added_event, appearance_changed_event, root_path,
         loop)