Is It Bad to Use Delays in Java Code?

It really depends on your use case. If you need to introduce a specific delay, then `Thread.sleep` is fine. But it's usually avoided in production to prevent blocking threads. It's best to use alternatives like `ScheduledExecutorService` for scheduling tasks, or blocking queues that allow for more sophisticated synchronization. Don't forget about tools from libraries like Guava which provide utilities like `Monitor` for better control over thread states.

Depending on your context, alarms might be the way to go! If you're developing for Android or a Java EE environment, there are built-in alarm APIs available. For when you need precise timings, you may consider implementations that interact with hardware. Just keep in mind that waiting on conditions is often more efficient than constantly checking if something is ready, so libraries like RxJava can be beneficial.

It's generally better to avoid using sleep for waiting, as it can lead to inefficient thread management. Instead, consider using event-driven mechanisms where a thread only wakes up when there's something to process. For example, if you're consuming from a queue, having the thread sleep until there's data can waste resources and lead to excessive context switching. Employing a blocking queue helps manage this more effectively without sleeping unnecessarily.

`Thread.sleep` can work when you need to wait for a certain duration. The checked exceptions are there so you can handle interrupts correctly. If you have code that you need to stop without waiting for a long time, you’d want to manage that using the interrupt feature of threads. You can even create a simple custom sleep method that converts the checked exception into an unchecked one if that's your preference. For waiting on specific events, consider leveraging the concurrency package which has features like `BlockingQueue` and `CountDownLatch`.