mytimer.py

from threading import Thread, Event
import time

class MyTimer(Thread):
    """Call a function after a specified number of seconds. Repeat a specified number of times:

    Set repetitions to 0 to do this forever (until cancel is called).
    Usage:
    t = MyTimer(interval, repetitions, function, args=[], kwargs={})
    t.start()
    t.cancel() # stop the timer's action if it's still waiting
    """
    # This timer is modeled after the original Timer class in the python threading package

    def __init__(self, interval, repetitions, function, args=[], kwargs={}):
        Thread.__init__(self)
        self.interval = interval
        self.repetitions = repetitions
        self.function = function
        self.args = args
        self.kwargs = kwargs
        self.finished = Event()

    def cancel(self):
        """Stop the timer if it hasn't finished yet"""
        self.finished.set()

    def run(self):
        if self.repetitions != 0:
            for i in range(0, self.repetitions):
                self.finished.wait(self.interval)
                if not self.finished.isSet():
                    self.function(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
        else:
            while not self.finished.isSet():
                self.finished.wait(self.interval)
                if not self.finished.isSet():
                    self.function(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
        self.finished.set()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    #some test code here. 
    def hello(name="bla"):
        print "hello, ", name

    myt = MyTimer(1.0, 5, hello, ["bob"])
    myt.start()
    time.sleep(4)
    myt.cancel()
    print "next timer"
    myt = MyTimer(1.0, 0, hello, ["bob"])
    myt.start()
    time.sleep(6)
    myt.cancel()