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.

gem install actiontimer

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

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

ActionTimer is currently tested on:

• Ruby 1.8.6-p383

• Ruby 1.8.7-p248

• Ruby 1.9.1-p376

• JRuby 1.4.0

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.

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

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.

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