How to launch a function at regular time intervals ?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2009-08-13, Dave Angel <davea at ieee.org> wrote:
> Grant Edwards wrote:
>> On 2009-08-13, Dave Angel <davea at ieee.org> wrote:

>>> The general outline is something like (untested):
>>>
>>> times_called = 0           #number of times function has been called
>>> start_time = now
>>> while True:
>>>      elapsed = now - start_time
>>>      int_elapsed = int(elapsed/time_interval)
>>>      for times_called in range(times_called, int_elapsed):
>>>                     call_the_function()
>>>      sleep(time_interval/10)           #this might give us 10% jitter, which is usually fine
>>
>> I don't understand the reasoning behind the above loop --
>> specifically the sleeping of smaller intervals than needed.
>>
>> Why not something like this:
>>
>>     interval = 5.0  # interval in seconds
>>     next = time.time()
>>
>>     while True:
>>         now = time.time()
>>         if now < next:      
>>             time.sleep(now-next)
>>         print "call_the_function()"
>>         next += interval
>>
>> That will be accurate over the long term with minimal jitter.
>>   
> Two reasons I didn't take an approach like that one.
>
> 1) I frequently need to do something else while waiting, so I
>    tend to do multiple smaller sleeps.  As long as each sleep
>    is at least 100ms, the overhead cost is pretty small.

I guess I always use a separate thread for cases like that.

> 2) If (occasionally) the function takes longer than the
>    specified interval time, my approach does catch-up calls so
>    the average remains the same.

I'm still confused -- doesn't mine do that as well?

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