timer/counter - new question

[homer]

ok, I know I'm not there yet. Kind of feel dump, but I'll try again.

let's say I have a button for "start"/"stop"

I have a field I'll call "result"

when I click "start" I want to add 1 to the field "result"

1

wait 1 second

2

wait 1 second

3

and so forth.

I want this to go on forever, until I click "stop"

so, I tried to do something like

on mouseUp
repeat with i = 60
wait 1 second
put i into field "result"
end repeat
end mouse up

this works, however, while the script is adding 1 to the field, I can't click on "stop" when the number gets to say 34, or whatever.

how do I create something that I can start and stop at will? and of course I have a follow up. suppose I have three such buttons and corresponding result fields: start/stop 1, start/stop 2, start/stop 3... each with a different frequency, and have them all running at the same time, or have 1 and 3 running and 2 'idle", or 3 running and 1 and 2 "idle"

well, first things first... get one to work.

suggestions apprecitated.

homer

[Lynn P.]

Hi homer ~

One approach to the first question:

Code: Select all

local lastNumber=1

on mouseUp 
  if lastNumber is not empty
  then
    repeat with i=lastNumber to 60
      if the mouseClick is true
      then
        put fld "result" into lastNumber
        exit mouseUp
      else
        put i into field "result" 
        wait 1 second
        if i = 60
        then
          put 1 into lastNumber
        end if
      end if
    end repeat 
  end if
end mouseUp     

[homer]

thanks, but that didn't work.

I copied the script into a button. I created a field named "result"

when i clicked on the button, nothing happened.

more assistance would be appreciated.

thanks

homer

[Mark Smith]

Code: Select all

local sRunning = false

on mouseUp
  if not sRunning then
    put true into sRunning
    incFld
  else
    put false into sRunning
  end if
end mouseUp

on incFld
  if sRunning then
    add 1 to fld "counter"
    send "incFld" to me in 1 second
  end if
end incFld

Best,

Mark

[Lynn P.]

thanks, but that didn't work.
...

````````````````
Oops.
Forgot to initialize the local variable. It's fixed now and should work.
My solution only counts to 60 as you indicated in your own code, but Mark's suggestion will go on forever as you also stated you wanted it to do.

[homer]

ok, I'm making progress... and learning

Thanks Mark for the help.

next thing is this.

I created a button with a label "start1"

local sRunning = false

on mouseUp
if not sRunning then
put true into sRunning
incFld
else
put false into sRunning
end if
set the backgroundcolor of me to "0,255,0"
set the label of me to "start1"
end mouseUp

on incFld
if sRunning then
add 1 to fld "counter01"
send "incFld" to me in 1 second
set the backgroundcolor of me to "255,0,0"
set the label of me to "stop1"
end if
end incFld

This all works, however, when the button is clicked and the counter begins, there is a momentary delay before the button changes from label "start1" to "stop1" and from color green to red.

do I have the "set" in the wrong places?

Thanks again for your help.

Homer

[Mark Smith]

Homer, I'd probably factor the colour changing etc. into a separate handler:

Code: Select all

local sRunning = false 

on mouseUp 
  if not sRunning then 
    put true into sRunning 
    incFld 
  else 
    put false into sRunning 
  end if
  updateMe
end mouseUp 

on incFld 
  if sRunning then 
    add 1 to fld "counter01" 
    send "incFld" to me in 1 second
  end if
end incFld

on updateMe
  if sRunning then
    set the backgroundcolor of me to "255,0,0"
    set the label of me to "stop1"
  else
    set the backgroundcolor of me to "255,0,0"
    set the label of me to "stop1"
  end if
end updateMe

best,

Mark

[homer]

Mark,

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try that tonite. I had actually thought along those line -- a separate handler to "toggle" the state, but I wasn't quite sure where in the "mouseUp" it should go.

I'll let you know how it works out.

Thanks.

Homer

[deeverd]

Hi Homer,

I'm still fairly new at programming so feel free to take my suggestion with a grain of salt, but I have created similar timers before.

If you want the timer to run until you click on something, why not just do:

repeat until mouseClick

Offhand, I can't remember if you need to put "the" in there as well, which would simply be:

repeat until the mouseClick

With such a script, your repeat will stop instantly the moment you click the mouse after the timer starts, and it doesn't matter what you click on.

Cheers, deeverd

[Janschenkel]

Hi Homer and Deeverd,

While this 'repeat until the mouseClick' construct works and does stop the timer regardless of where the user clicks, this is an approach that eats up the CPU time as the engine is constantly evaluating the 'mouseClick' function, which will only give a result upon click.

This means that it will ask the operating system hundreds or even thousands of times per second if the user clicked the mouse by any chance.
It is more efficient to wait for the operating system to figure it out and send an event to the engine, which in turn dispatches a message that you handle.

See also this excellent article by Jacque Gay entitled 'Polling the Mouse in MetaCard and Revolution' :
http://www.hyperactivesw.com/polling.html

Hope this helped,

Jan Schenkel.