Losing track of time

Howard Bornstein bornstein at designeq.com
Mon Aug 11 14:23:00 EDT 2003


>The send is based on the date and time.  Though you specify it as a  
>delta, you are really creating a message that is readied for execution  
>at a time.

Now you've got me confused. I thought the send parameter was a value in 
seconds, not a date & time. Obviously seconds can be converted, but it's 
the lowest common denominator (other than ticks). So doesn't it just set 
up an internal timer and "ring back" after so many seconds have elapsed?

>Another is to calculate the delay in the send based on the time.   
>Calculate the seconds of the date/time you want the chime,  
>chimeSeconds.

Isn't that exactly what I'm doing (minus the calculation) when I say
"send 'reminder' to me in 3600 seconds"?

Ok, let's start all over. Tell me where I'm wrong in my thinking.

You use send with a parameter of seconds. It goes off into Metacard 
engine-land and probably sets up an OS timer. It then sits there fat, 
dumb, and ugly (assuming you're doing nothing else, as in my case) until 
the time elapses. Then it comes back to your app and says "It's Soup!". 
It just counts seconds, right? Baring other system delays and blocking 
operations, it should come back to you in the number of seconds you asked 
for.

All I'm trying to do is to see if the obvserved delay is due to other 
system resources being used or if a blocking command (possibly "play" for 
example) is happening or something else I haven't thought of. 
Fortunately, I'm not trying to use this to navigate a space ship, so 
little delays aren't really a problem. I'm just curious.

Regards,

Howard



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