howl.timer

Overview

The timer module provides support for “timers”, that is having functions invoked at a later time. All callbacks are always invoked on the main GUI thread.

See also:

• The spec for timer

Functions

asap (callback, …)

Invokes callback as soon as possible, passing along any optional extra parameters passed to asap. It might be unclear what the value of having a callback invoked as soon as possible is, compared to just invoking directly. The rationale for this is that there are cases where you want to schedule destructive buffer modifications, but are not allowed to do so at the current point in time (e.g. when in a signal handler for the text-deleted signal).

Returns an opaque handle for the timer, which can be passed to cancel in order to cancel the timer.

after (seconds, callback, …)

Invokes callback after approximately seconds seconds, passing along any optional extra parameters passed to after. seconds can contain fractions, allowing you schedule callbacks at sub-second rates.

Returns an opaque handle for the timer, which can be passed to cancel in order to cancel the timer.

As an example, the below snippet would cause the text “I was invoked with Log me!” to be logged after approximately 500 milliseconds:

callback = (text) ->
  log.info "I was invoked with #{text}"

timer.after 0.5, callback, 'Log me!'

cancel (handle)

Cancels the timer associated with handle. handle must be one the values returned from asap, after or on_idle.

on_idle (seconds, callback, …)

Invokes callback after the application has been idle for approximately seconds seconds, passing along any optional extra parameters passed to on_idle. The precision of idle timers are whole seconds.

Returns an opaque handle for the timer, which can be passed to cancel in order to cancel the timer.