Subj : setInterval() and setTimeout()
To   : echicken
From : Nightfox
Date : Fri Feb 25 2022 09:05 am

  Re: setInterval() and setTimeout()
  By: echicken to Nightfox on Fri Feb 25 2022 06:09 am

 Ni>> setInterval() to have it run a function to do that at a regular
 Ni>> interval (while the user is still editing a message). But with the
 Ni>> behavior you describe, I'm not sure if that would be possible? 

 ec> I don't think it's possible yet.

 ec> You're probably taking input from the user via console.getkey inside of a
 ec> loop. You may be doing this in a single main loop, or in several places.
 ec> Any such loop will block the script and prevent timers from running. 

 ec> The solution would be to have your script define a bunch of functions,
 ec> etc., register a callback that gets fired when the user hits a key, and
 ec> then simply exit without blocking / looping. At this point everything
 ec> flows from your timers and input handler. Now your timers are free to run,
 ec> and won't be blocked except maybe briefly by your input callback. Unless
 ec> SlyEdit was designed in a very modular way, this probably means a huge
 ec> refactoring. 

Yeah, that would probably be a bit too much of a refactoring right now.  I didn't know how Synchronet implements setInterval() or setTimeout() but I wondered if Synchronet may be starting a separate thread to wait and call your function, but it sounds like it's not implemented that way.

 ec> I'm using SlyEdit right now, and I noticed that if I pause for a minute,
 ec> the clock doesn't update until I hit a key. So I imagine you're using
 ec> console.getkey.

Yeah, for each keypress, SlyEdit just checks the current time and if it's different from the displayed time, it will update the time on the screen.

 ec> Here's an easier solution to updating the clock on a
 ec> schedule: 

 ec>  load('event-timer.js');

 ec>  const t = new Timer();

 ec>  function updateClock() {
 ec>   // do stuff here
 ec>  }

 ec>  function getKey() {
 ec>   var k;
 ec>   while (!k && !js.terminated) {
 ec>     t.cycle();
 ec>     k = console.inkey(K_NONE, 25);
 ec>   }
 ec>   return k;
 ec>  }

 ec>  t.addEvent(1000, true, updateClock);

 ec> Obviously simplistic, but the idea would be to use the custom getKey
 ec> function as a drop-in replacement for console.getkey. Now you've got a
 ec> timer that will be allowed to run while you wait for user input. 

It looks like that would be a good solution.

Nightfox

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