BASIC TIMER Functions

TIMER

TYPE: plusBASIC audio pseudovariable

---

FORMAT: TIMER = count

Action: Sets and starts the countdown timer.

• count is a number in the range 0 through 16,777,215.
  • Setting the timer to non-zero number starts the countdown.
  • Setting the timer to zero stops the timer.
• The timer counts down in jiffies, each jiffy being 1/60th second.
  • When the count reaches 0, it stops.

Advanced:

• The timer is interrupt driven.
  • While the timer is running, it is decremented each VBLANK interrupt.
  • Starting the timer enables interrupts.
  • When the timer stops and no other interrupt routines are active, interrupts are disabled.
  • If a process disables interrupts, the timer will be paused until interrupts are reenabled.

Examples:

TIMER = 300

Starts the countdown timer at 5 seconds.

TIMER = 0

Stops the countdown timer.

---

FORMAT: TIMER

Action: Returns the current timer count.

Examples:

PRINT TIMER

Displays the current timer count.

10 IF TIMER THEN GOTO 10

Loops until timer reaches 0.