time delays

[Toe]

I have a loop in a program that I want to slow down. i mean litterally slow down the operation of the code so that it stops for a length of time before executing the next step.

all the info I find pertains to settin timers (setTimeout) but all this actually does is delay the whole process. (I have a loop and i want it to loop slower. setting a timer just creates a load of defferred statements)

I was thinking about setting a flag with the timer called function resettign it but had problem with it thinking the variable was local and not the same one.

any ideas?

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

You can't slow down or pause execution in JavaScript.

You can emulate it, as you've found, with setTimeout, but there's no 'real' way to slow loops down.

Sorry!

Dan

 

[tviman]

You could put a "for" loop in your scripot where yopu want to "slow" the script down. You could count from 1 to say a million (you'll have to experiment here):

for (x=1,x<=1000000,x++);

Remember - the actual time till termination will vary for each computer depending on processor speed.

There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!

 

[kaht]

tviman,

I used to do that all the time back when I was in high school coding video games in qbasic. Unfortunately none of them are playable anymore cause they run at light speed

-kaht

 

[wray]

setTimeout()

will let you slow down a routine but you have to restructure the program a bit. Cut the logic in question into two pieces, the first including everything up to and including the loop code. Where the loop terminates insert a

setTimeout()

that calls the second part after an acceptable delay. Something like this --

function main() {
  someProcessing();
  for (var j = 0; j < someNumber; j++) {
    someLoopProcessing(j);
    }
  someMoreProcessing();
}

becomes --

function main1() {
  someProcessing();
  for (var j = 0; j < someNumber; j++) {
    someLoopProcessing(j);
    }
  setTimeout(&quot;main2();&quot;,iDelay);
}

function main2() {
  someMoreProcessing();
}

 

[Toe]

thanks wray.

i had actually come to a similar conclusion myself last night - what I am doing is moving a layer across the screen.
i realised that what I needed to do was have a function DoNextMove that calls itself via a timer until it has reached the end point .

thanks everyone for their suggestions