isDaemon and Java Threads

Whilst pondering the best way to organise the threading structure of our upcoming Android app Tub Thumper Pro, it struck me that there is a smattering of confusion (at least in my head!) over whether a thread is a daemon or not.

In Java, there are two types of threads Daemon Threads and User Threads.

User Threads are the ones you'll most commonly use; these provide the mechanism of running parallel code in your applications. Most importantly - when the application is terminated, the JVM waits for all user threads to finish before quitting.

Daemon Threads are generally used for service-level processing rather than application-level code. The JVM will not wait for any daemons to finish before quitting your application, they will run behind the scenes until the JVM decides there's nothing else to do and terminates.