Hi,

there is a piece of code:

class WCFConsoleHostApp : IBank
{
    private static int _instanceCounter;

    public WCFConsoleHostApp ()
        {
        Interlocked.Increment(ref _instanceCounter);
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0:T} Instance nr " + _instanceCounter + " created", DateTime.Now));
        }
    private static int amount;

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {            
        ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(typeof(WCFConsoleHostApp));
        host.Open();
        Console.WriteLine("Host is running...");
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    #region IBank Members

    BankOperationResult IBank.Put(int amount)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0:00} {1}", Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId, Thread.CurrentThread.IsThreadPoolThread) + " Putting...");
        WCFConsoleHostApp.amount += amount;
        Thread.Sleep(20000);
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0:00} {1}", Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId, Thread.CurrentThread.IsThreadPoolThread) + " Putting done");
        return new BankOperationResult { CurrentAmount = WCFConsoleHostApp.amount, Success = true };            
    }

    BankOperationResult IBank.Withdraw(int amount)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0:00} {1}", Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId, Thread.CurrentThread.IsThreadPoolThread) + " Withdrawing...");
        WCFConsoleHostApp.amount -= amount;
        Thread.Sleep(20000);
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0:00} {1}", Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId, Thread.CurrentThread.IsThreadPoolThread) + " Withdrawing done");
        return new BankOperationResult { CurrentAmount = WCFConsoleHostApp.amount, Success = true };
    }

    #endregion
}

My test client application calls that service in 50 threads (service is PerCall). What I found very disturbing is when I added Thread.Sleep(20000) WCF creates one service instance per second using different thread from pool.

When I remove Thread.Sleep(20000) 50 instances are instanciated straight away, and about 2-4 threads are used to do it - which in fact I consider normal.

Could somebody explain why when Thread.Sleep causes those funny delays in creating instances?