This issue tracker has been migrated to GitHub, and is currently read-only.
For more information, see the GitHub FAQs in the Python's Developer Guide.

classification
Title: Timer class for threading
Type: Stage:
Components: Library (Lib) Versions:
process
Status: closed Resolution: accepted
Dependencies: Superseder:
Assigned To: Nosy List: gvanrossum, itamar, loewis
Priority: normal Keywords: patch

Created on 2001-05-29 15:20 by itamar, last changed 2022-04-10 16:04 by admin. This issue is now closed.

Files
File name Uploaded Description Edit
timer.py itamar, 2001-05-29 15:20 Timer class
/usr/src/python-cvs/doc.patch itamar, 2001-09-04 14:49 Documentation patch
Messages (12)
msg36669 - (view) Author: Itamar Shtull-Trauring (itamar) Date: 2001-05-29 15:20
The Timer class allows you to schedule an action to
happen at some time in the future, using a thread. For
example:

  def f():
      print "30 seconds have passed"

  t = Timer(30.0, f)
  t.start() # after 30 seconds f will be called

  try:  
      # .... other stuff
  except SystemExit:
      t.cancel() # cancel the timer since we are
shutting down


It allows passing arguments and keyword arguments to
the function that is called. It also allows
*cancelling* the timer. That is, if the timer is still
waiting, we can tell it to stop its operation.

Why should this be in the standard library?

1. Timers are a standard, useful programming idiom.

2.  It can be used as an example of how to:
     a. create subclasses of threading.Thread
     b. make threads that can be "stopped"


If this patch is approved I will then write
documentation. I'm not sure how to go about writing
tests for it.
msg36670 - (view) Author: Itamar Shtull-Trauring (itamar) Date: 2001-05-29 16:45
Logged In: YES 
user_id=32065

I'm withdrawing this patch for a short period of time for
non-technical reasons, hopefully I can put it back soon.
msg36671 - (view) Author: Itamar Shtull-Trauring (itamar) Date: 2001-05-30 09:16
Logged In: YES 
user_id=32065

OK, I'm un-withdrawing this patch.  Just had to get things
straight with our lawyer. The patch is released under the
following license (the X11 license with 4 extra paragraphs
of disclaimers :):
http://www.zoteca.com/opensource/LICENSE.txt
msg36672 - (view) Author: Itamar Shtull-Trauring (itamar) Date: 2001-05-30 16:40
Logged In: YES 
user_id=32065

There was a licensing discussion on python-dev which no one
bothered to CC me on :). Yes, this can be relicensed under
the PSF license. 

I suggest someone write up some sort of guidelines for
submitted patches and improvement explain the whole
licensing and copyright issues.
msg36673 - (view) Author: Martin v. Löwis (loewis) * (Python committer) Date: 2001-08-08 20:32
Logged In: YES 
user_id=21627

I'm in favour of approving this patch, as an extension to 
the threading module. Are you willing to draft a patch to 
the documentation (libthreading.tex) as well?

Ideally, there would also be a set of regression tests in 
a test_threading file; it would be acceptable if this only 
tests your feature for the moment.
msg36674 - (view) Author: Guido van Rossum (gvanrossum) * (Python committer) Date: 2001-08-08 20:53
Logged In: YES 
user_id=6380

I like it too.

But I don't want itamar's license anywhere in the
distribution -- too wordy.

I agree that the PSF should clear up the licensing
situation; we're working
on that but it's slow going (nobody likes this work :-( ).
msg36675 - (view) Author: Itamar Shtull-Trauring (itamar) Date: 2001-08-09 21:23
Logged In: YES 
user_id=32065

1) license can be python's and copyright PSF's
2) I will write docs and tests
3) not sure when, maybe this weekend

One question - timers actually seem to be a task that
happens repeatedly every X seconds (e.g. in wxWindows).
Should I add that functionality (do a task every X seconds,
N times, N is either >= 1 or infinite) or just rename the class?
msg36676 - (view) Author: Guido van Rossum (gvanrossum) * (Python committer) Date: 2001-08-09 21:45
Logged In: YES 
user_id=6380

Good!

I don't think there's a standard definition of timers --
I've seen both.  A more general timer that can go off N
times, defaulting to once, sounds like a nice API.

Hm, I can actually only think of two usage scenarios: either
you want it to go off once, or you want it to repeat until
you cancel it.  Think about it.

There's also the msg from Aahz in the python-dev list where
he claims he doesn't like something about this without
saying what.  I hope he clarifies that in this SF tracker
item.
msg36677 - (view) Author: Martin v. Löwis (loewis) * (Python committer) Date: 2001-08-10 08:21
Logged In: YES 
user_id=21627

A quick poll among colleagues shows that shoot-once timers
are far more common than repeated intervall timers. You also
can quite easily implement the intervall timer on top of a
shoot-once timer, by restarting it in the timeout handler
(although care is needed if you need exact intervalls:
between last scheduled time-out and the handler invocation,
time may pass, so the restart may need to be smaller than
the intervall).

In short, I think the API as you provide it is excellent; if
people find it useful and require more, they will provide
patches.
msg36678 - (view) Author: Guido van Rossum (gvanrossum) * (Python committer) Date: 2001-08-10 13:51
Logged In: YES 
user_id=6380

OK.  Let's do a one-short timer only.
msg36679 - (view) Author: Itamar Shtull-Trauring (itamar) Date: 2001-09-04 14:49
Logged In: YES 
user_id=32065

I've attached a patch to the documentation. I don't know
LaTex so there may be some errors (although the HTML output
seems OK).
msg36680 - (view) Author: Martin v. Löwis (loewis) * (Python committer) Date: 2001-09-05 13:46
Logged In: YES 
user_id=21627

Thanks for the patch; it is committed as threading.py 1.18,
libthreading.tex 1.11, NEWS 1.230.
History
Date User Action Args
2022-04-10 16:04:05adminsetgithub: 34555
2001-05-29 15:20:29itamarcreate