timerider

Accurate timers with drift correction, pause/resume, and long delay support.

Features

Timerider improves upon standard timers in three key ways:

1. Time Drift Correction: Automatically corrects time drift for both setInterval and setTimeout, ensuring more accurate timing over long periods.
2. Long Delay Support: Handles delays longer than the 32-bit integer limit (2^31 - 1 ms), which standard timers cannot process correctly.
3. Pause & Resume: Adds the ability to pause a timer and resume it later, perfect for games or interactive applications.

Installation

Deno

deno add jsr:@denostack/timerider

Node.js & Browser

npm install timerider

Usage

Timeout

createTimeout works like setTimeout but returns a Timer object with additional control.

import{createTimeout}from"@denostack/timerider";// Basic usagecreateTimeout(()=>{console.log("Hello after 1 second");},1000);// Pause and Resumeconsttimer=createTimeout(()=>{console.log("This will run eventually...");},5000);// Pause the timertimer.pause();// Resume after some timesetTimeout(()=>{timer.resume();// Will resume waiting for the remaining time},2000);

Interval

createInterval works like setInterval but with built-in drift correction.

import{createInterval}from"@denostack/timerider";createInterval(()=>{console.log("Tick every 1 second");},1000);

Long Delays

Standard timers fail with delays larger than ~24.8 days (2^31 - 1 milliseconds). Timerider handles this seamlessly.

import{createTimeout}from"@denostack/timerider";// Wait for 30 daysconstthirtyDays=1000*60*60*24*30;createTimeout(()=>{console.log("See you next month!");},thirtyDays);

API Reference

createTimeout(callback, delay)

Creates a timer that executes the callback after the specified delay.

• callback: Function to execute.
• delay: Number (ms) or Date object.
• Returns: Timer

createInterval(callback, interval, delay?)

Creates a timer that repeatedly executes the callback at the specified interval.

• callback: Function to execute.
• interval: Number (ms) for the repetition interval.
• delay: (Optional) Number (ms) or Date object for the initial start delay.
• Returns: Timer

Timer Interface

The object returned by createTimeout and createInterval.

interfaceTimer{/** * Returns the current state of the timer. * "waiting": Timer is running and waiting for the next execution. * "paused": Timer is paused. * "completed": Timer has finished (for timeouts) or paused permanently. */state(): "waiting"|"paused"|"completed";/** * Pauses the timer. The remaining time is preserved. */pause(): Timer;/** * Resumes the timer from where it left off. */resume(): Timer;/** * Permanently pauses the timer. Similar to clearTimeout/clearInterval. */clear(): void;}