Most Efficient Timer?

[Scott Rossi]

I've been thinking about timers recently and thought I run this by the list
to see what other Rev experts thought.  I guess the way to set this is up
is: "Can you script a more efficient timer?"

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The way I usually build asynchronous timers uses a "send in" structure like
the following: (simplified for example)

local tCurrTime
on runTimer
  if not the uAllowTimer of me then exit runTimer
  if (the millisecs > tCurrTime + 1000) then
    put the millisecs into tCurrTime
    put the long time into fld 1
  end if
  send "runTimer" to me in 100 millisecs
end runTimer

The above example checks the value of the milliseconds 10 times a second and
puts the result into a locked field after one second has elapsed.  But it
also generates 10 messages a second, and it occurred to me that another way
to do this is to use the "wait x with messages" construct which I'm guessing
evaluates time many more times a second, but at a lower level than "send
in":

local tCurrTime
on runTimer
  repeat forever
    if not the uAllowTimer of me then exit runTimer
    wait until (the millisecs > tCurrTime + 1000) or \
        (not the uAllowTimer of me) with messages
    put the millisecs into tCurrTime
    put the long time into fld 1
  end repeat
end runTimer

Both of the above routines provide the same output.  However, when viewing
the %CPU use on a Mac OSX system with the Activity Monitor, CPU usage is
clearly dependent on the frequency of the "send in" message: with 100
milliseconds frequency, the first handler runs at about 15% usage, and with
50 milliseconds frequency runs at about 30% usage (makes sense).

Amazingly, the "wait x with messages" handler runs at less than 1% usage.
And because "with messages" does not block other messages from being sent,
this seems a very efficient way to run a timer.

Obviously the above is useful only in situations requiring accuracy of 1
second or less, but at first glance I can't see any drawback to using this
method.  Can you?

Regards,

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, Development & Design
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E: scott at tactilemedia.com
W: http://www.tactilemedia.com