puppybasic intro ch. 15 - timing

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regards to puppybasic.

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timing                                                                   
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                  an intro to puppybasic                                 
                                                                         
                  chapter 15: timing                                     
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
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timing                                                                   
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vital to graphics and games, and useful for many other things you'll     
want to do, the following are common functions for accessing the         
timer inside the computer and its clock functions:                       
                                                                         
TIMER                                                                    
(mentioned earlier for use with RANDOMIZE) is a numeric function that    
returns the number of seconds that have elapsed since midnight.          
                                                                         
you can code a delay using TIMER this way...                             
                                                                         
                               ... (only joking, it's on the next page.) 
                                                                         
                                                                         
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timing                                                                   
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delay = .5 'delay in seconds, in this case: half of one second           
t = TIMER + delay: DO: LOOP UNTIL TIMER > t or TIMER < t - delay * 1.2   
                                                                         
it is also possible to create a short delay using FOR q=1 TO d: NEXT q   
where d is a large number, but the faster computers get, the more        
useless this method becomes. also it is unreliable in that the delay is  
longer on slower machines, and that the delay it creates can't be        
determined exactly on any machine but the one you try it on.             
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
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timing                                                                   
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SLEEP                                                                    
                                                                         
makes a program suddenly sit and do absolutely nothing until a key is    
pressed, and if used with a number:                                      
                                                                         
SLEEP 5                                                                  
                                                                         
works the same way, only gives up waiting for a key after that number of 
seconds.                                                                 
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
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timing                                                                   
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if used enough times in a program, (especially in a loop,) the keyboard  
buffer will fill, which adds up to annoying clicking noises. you can     
clear this buffer using INKEY$, but i think it makes more sense to       
substitute q$=INPUT$(1) for SLEEP, or a variation of the timer code      
example (throw in an INKEY$ function) in this chapter for SLEEP N, and   
i usually only use SLEEP when i'm busy enough doing other things to      
avoid typing parenthesis: (example: SLEEP is very useful during          
debugging.)                                                              
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
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TIME$                                                                    
has the double use of checking and setting the time.                     
                                                                         
to check the time, let q$=TIME$ which will set q$ to an 8-byte string    
comprised of "hh:mm:ss" with hh being a pair of hour digits, mm being    
minutes, and ss being seconds.                                           
                                                                         
to set the time, create a string in the same 8-byte "hh:mm:ss" format    
and let TIME$=q$                                                         
                                                                         
easy!                                                                    
                                                                         
                                                                         
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timing                                                                   
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DATE$ works like TIME$ and checks and sets the date with the format      
month-day-year as "mm-dd-yyyy"                                           
                                                                         
note: if your computer is outside the united states, it's possible that  
your OS and thus puppybasic will use a different date display.               
                                                                         
                                                                         
                         -= end of chapter 15 =-                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
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an intro to puppybasic                                      (chapter 15) 
this content is public domain.                          
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