[Tutor] timed functions? Timeouts?

[W W]

Hi, I'm having trouble finding any information (or if it's possible)
on this particular topic.

Specifically, there's a feature in javascript that I want to emulate.

this is an example I pulled from a webmonkey tutorial

--------------------------
function writeTime() {

   // get a date object
   var today = new Date();

   // ask the object for some information
   var hours = today.getHours();
   var minutes = today.getMinutes();
   var seconds = today.getSeconds();

   // fixTime makes the minutes and seconds look right
   // it just sticks a zero in front of numbers less than 10
   minutes = fixTime(minutes);
   seconds = fixTime(seconds);

   // put together the time string and write it out
   var the_time = hours + ":" + minutes + ":" + seconds;
   window.document.the_form.the_text.value = the_time;

   // run this function again in half a second
   the_timeout= setTimeout('writeTime();',500);

 }

 function fixTime(the_time) {

 	if (the_time <10)
 	{
 		the_time = "0" + the_time;
 	}
 	return the_time;
 }
---------------

The specific bit I'm looking at is this line

   the_timeout = setTimeout('writeTime();',500);

basically it calls the function again in 500ms, but rather than
pausing, I guess it spawns a new thread? I'm not really sure.
>From the little experience I have in JS it appears that multiple
"timers" can be running at a time, all the code "in between" the
timeouts will execute, and when the timeout is finished it will
execute whatever the command is (in this case, 'writeTime();').

So I'm trying to find out a pythonic equivalent (if there is one). So
far Googling for "python timeout" gives me no helpful results, and
"python threading" gives me some examples that are close to what I
think I'm looking for.

Now, when I look at that example and try to translate the timeout to
what I think is going on "behind the scenes" I'm pretty sure it spawns
a thread that does something similar to this:

   1 import time
  2
  3 def timer(end, exe):
  4     start = time.time()
  5     while True:
  6       now = time.time()
  7       if (now - start) >= end:
  8         break
  9     exe()
 10
 11 def execute_this():
 12    for x in range(1, 10):
 13      print x
 14
 15 timer(5, execute_this)

Am I correct? Is there a python built-in for this? Where should I go
to learn more? Is there anything "wrong" with using a function like
this?

Thanks in advance,
Wayne
-- 
To be considered stupid and to be told so is more painful than being
called gluttonous, mendacious, violent, lascivious, lazy, cowardly:
every weakness, every vice, has found its defenders, its rhetoric, its
ennoblement and exaltation, but stupidity hasn't. - Primo Levi