py-timer

List-based timers for Python to make it easier to actually use and kill timers. One thread overhead when a timer is active, rather than dozens of threads.

This is based on an old technique for limiting the number of active timers outstanding to one. I wrote this because I was having lots of issues getting timers to die when the program died. Rather than try fighting with it, I wrote this wrapper.

Usage

Use it as you would use Python's built-in timers.

You should be able to replace the current timers with the following import line:

from py_timer import py_timer as Timer

Usage is the same as the built-in Timer:

def hello_world():
    print "Hello World!"
py_timer(5, hello_world)

This will print "Hello World!" after 5 seconds.

The timers can also accept arguments:

def print_a_number(num):
    print "num = " + str(num)
py_timer(5, print_a_number, [100])

And kwargs:

py_timer(5, print_a_number, kwargs={'num':100})

Or both:

def print_two_numbers(num, num2=0):
    print "num = " + str(num)
py_timer(5, print_a_number, [100], {'num2': 100})

Cancelling timers

Timers can be cancelled as with the built-in library:

timer1 = py_timer(5, print_a_number, [100])
timer1.cancel()

When the main program finishes, all timers will be canceled. Keep this in mind! It is implemented using daemon threads (see the _restart_timer() function in py_timer_manager class).

Limitations

Second resolution at this time. Only accepts in seconds, have not tested with partial seconds yet.