timers-browserify

What is timers-browserify?

The timers-browserify npm package is a browser-compatible version of Node.js' timers module, providing timer functions such as setTimeout, setInterval, and others. It allows developers to use the same API in both Node.js and browser environments, facilitating code sharing and reuse.

What are timers-browserify's main functionalities?

setTimeout

Delays the execution of a function by a specified number of milliseconds.

setTimeout(function() { console.log('Timer triggered!'); }, 1000);

clearTimeout

Cancels a timeout previously established by calling setTimeout.

var timerId = setTimeout(function() { console.log('This will not be logged.'); }, 1000); clearTimeout(timerId);

setInterval

Repeatedly calls a function with a fixed time delay between each call.

setInterval(function() { console.log('Interval triggered!'); }, 2000);

clearInterval

Cancels a timed, repeating action which was previously established by a call to setInterval.

var intervalId = setInterval(function() { console.log('This will keep logging.'); }, 2000); clearInterval(intervalId);

Other packages similar to timers-browserify

node-timers

A package that provides a similar API to Node.js' timers module. It may offer additional or slightly different features compared to timers-browserify, but serves a similar purpose of providing timer functions.

setimmediate

This package polyfills the setImmediate API, which is not standard across all environments. It is similar to timers-browserify in that it provides a timer function, but it focuses on a single API rather than the full suite of timer functions.

README

Overview

Adds support for the timers module to browserify.

Wait, isn't it already supported in the browser?

The public methods of the timers module are:

• setTimeout(callback, delay, [arg], [...])
• clearTimeout(timeoutId)
• setInterval(callback, delay, [arg], [...])
• clearInterval(intervalId)

and indeed, browsers support these already.

So, why does this exist?

The timers module also includes some private methods used in other built-in Node.js modules:

• enroll(item, delay)
• unenroll(item)
• active(item)

These are used to efficiently support a large quantity of timers with the same timeouts by creating only a few timers under the covers.

Node.js also offers the immediate APIs, which aren't yet available cross-browser, so we polyfill those:

• setImmediate(callback, [arg], [...])
• clearImmediate(immediateId)

I need lots of timers and want to use linked list timers as Node.js does.

Linked lists are efficient when you have thousands (millions?) of timers with the same delay. Take a look at timers-browserify-full in this case.

License

MIT

Changelog

2.0.6 - 2018-01-24

Fixed

• Use typeof to search globals more carefully.