ActionTimer: Simple timing for a complex world¶ ↑

ActionTimer is a helper for timed events. It allows for single and recurring actions to be executed in an efficient manner. It makes use of a single thread to keep time on registered actions and uses an ActionPool to execute actions. Simple and effective.

install (easy):¶ ↑

gem install actiontimer

install (less easy):¶ ↑

git clone http://github.com/spox/actiontimer.git
cd actiontimer && gem build *.gemspec && gem install ./

install (less easy that’s a little easier)¶ ↑

rip makes it easy to install directly from a github repository.

Testing¶ ↑

ActionTimer is currently tested on:

• Ruby 1.8.6-p383

• Ruby 1.8.7-p248

• Ruby 1.9.1-p376

• JRuby 1.4.0

Using the timer:¶ ↑

Simple example:¶ ↑

require 'actiontimer'
timer = ActionTimer::Timer.new
timer.add(:period => 1){ puts "#{Time.now}: This is timed every 1 second." }
timer.add(:period => 2){ puts "#{Time.now}: This is timed every 2 seconds." }
loop do
  puts "#{Time.now}: Main loop sleeps for 3 seconds."
  sleep(3)
end

=>
2010-01-05 17:52:46 -0800: Main loop sleeps for 3 seconds.
2010-01-05 17:52:47 -0800: This is timed every 1 second.
2010-01-05 17:52:48 -0800: This is timed every 1 second.
2010-01-05 17:52:48 -0800: This is timed every 2 seconds.
2010-01-05 17:52:49 -0800: Main loop sleeps for 3 seconds.
2010-01-05 17:52:49 -0800: This is timed every 1 second.
2010-01-05 17:52:50 -0800: This is timed every 1 second.
2010-01-05 17:52:50 -0800: This is timed every 2 seconds.
2010-01-05 17:52:51 -0800: This is timed every 1 second.
2010-01-05 17:52:52 -0800: Main loop sleeps for 3 seconds.

Other examples:¶ ↑

What if you want to sleep for less than a second? Well, sure we can do that:

require 'actiontimer'
result = 0
timer = ActionTimer::Timer.new
timer.add(:period => 0.1){ result += 1 }
sleep(1.01)
p result

=> 10

How about passing data to your block:

require 'actiontimer'
data = :foobar
timer = ActionTimer::Timer.new
timer.add(:period => 0.01, :once => false, :data => data){|x| puts "Data: #{x}" }
data = :fubar
p data
sleep(0.011)
p data

=>
  :fubar
  Data: foobar
  :fubar

Or maybe you don’t want the timer to start right away:

require 'actiontimer'
timer = ActionTimer::Timer.new(:auto_start => false)
output = 0
timer.add(:period => 0.1){ output += 1 }
sleep(1)
p output
timer.start
sleep(1.01)
p output

=> 
  0
  10

What if you want to add multiple actions at one time? We can do this:

require 'actiontimer'
timer = ActionTimer::Timer.new
result = 0
actions = []
actions << ActionTimer::Action.new(:timer => timer, :period => 0.1){ result += 1}
actions << ActionTimer::Action.new(:timer => timer, :period => 0.2){ result += 1}
actions << ActionTimer::Action.new(:timer => timer, :period => 0.3){ result += 1}
timer.register(actions)
sleep(0.41)
p result

=> 7

Last remarks¶ ↑

If you find any bugs, please report them through github. If you are in need of any help, you can generally find me on DALnet and Freenode.

License¶ ↑

ActionPool is licensed under the LGPLv3
Copyright (c) 2009 spox <spox@modspox.com>