README.md

Timer - unified interval based callback execution

timer
    void    set(Function fn, Number interval[, Object scope, Mixed arg1, ..., Mixed argN])
    void    clear(Function fn, Number interval[, Object scope])
    void    clearAll([Number interval])

JavaScript performance significantly degrades when multiple high-frequency timers (<= 200ms) are executing simultaneously. Timer uses a single interval or timeout to execute one or more functions. This approach is particularly useful when building animation utilities or in-page monitoring services. Timer has no library dependencies, values a shallow callstack, and delivers a low file -- less than 500 bytes minified and gzipped.

Performance can be tuned by flipping a private variable to use setTimeout instead of setInterval. Using setTimeout helps reduce interpreter congestion. Mixing setTimeout and setInterval usage, or switching at runtime, is unsupported.

Git: git://github.com/mseeley/Timer.git

Unit tests

BSD Licensed

Usage

The following example illustrates two callbacks running at an interval of 100 msec. Behind the scenes only one call to setInterval or setTimeout is made.

var originalFontSize = parseInt(myEl.style.fontSize, 10);

function monitorFontSize () {
  var fontSize = parseInt(myEl.style.fontSize, 10);
  if (fontSize != originalFontSize) {
    originalFontSize = fontSize;
    // further code omitted
  }
}

// Execute the callback at 100 msec intervals, minimum required arguments
timer.set(monitorFontSize, 100);

var progressBar = {
  value: 0,
  update: function (toValue) {
    if (this.value++ === toValue) {
      // Clear using the values provided to set(); optional arguments may
      // be omitted.
      timer.clear(this.progressBar, 100, this);
    }
  }
};

// Execute scoped callback function, pass optional argument
timer.set(progressBar.update, 100, progressBar, 100);

// All timers can be cleared in a single function call
window.addEventListener("unload", timer.clearAll, false);

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BSD Licensed

© Matthew Seeley 2010