EventedLoop

An event-based loop class which can take arbitrary numbers of intervals/callback pairs. Based on Node.js EventEmitter. Created with game loops in mind.

It's very simple:

var EventedLoop = require('eventedloop'); // Only relevant if you're using Node or Browserify
var loop = new EventedLoop();
loop.every('20ms', function (e) {
  console.log('I did something at', e); // prints 'I did something at 20ms'
});
loop.start();

But wait, there's more! You can specify a bunch of different things to happen at different times, and they don't have to be milliseconds! (you can use ms, s, m, or h)

var EventedLoop = require('eventedloop'); // Only relevant if you're using Node or Browserify
var loop = new EventedLoop();
loop.every('2s', function (e) {
  console.log('Every 2 seconds I will run');
});
loop.every('1m', function (e) {
  console.log('Every 1 minute I will run');
});
loop.every('50s', function (e) {
  console.log('Every 1 minute I will run');
});
loop.start();
// You can even add new intervals after it starts running
loop.every('2m', function (e) {
	console.log('Every 2 minutes I will run');
});

You can do as many as you like, but I highly recommend you take it easy an don't overdo it. In newer versions of Chrome, 50 intervals seems to have no detrimental effects, but of course it depends on what is happening in the callback. An example of a situation with 50 intervals is available in this demo.

You can also remove events, and even do it after the loop has started!

var EventedLoop = require('eventedloop'); // Only relevant if you're using Node or Browserify
var loop = new EventedLoop();
loop.every('2s', function (e) {
  console.log('Every 2 seconds I will run');
});
var oneMinuteEvent = loop.every('1m', function (e) {
  console.log('Every 1 minute I will run');
});
loop.start();
// You can even add new intervals after it starts running
oneMinuteEvent.remove(); // The console.log happening once a minute no longer happens

API

• loop.every(interval, callback) - Tell the loop to execute the callback regularly at whatever time was specified in interval, which can either be milliseconds (e.g. 2ms), seconds (e.g. 5s), minutes (e.g. 10m), or hours (1h). Returns an object with the follow method:
  • event.remove() - remove this event from the loop, so it will no longer take place
• loop.start() - Starts the loop.
• loop.stop() - Stops the loop. Will not clear out all the intervals, this can be done with the inherited method from EventEmitter, loop.removeAllListeners.
• loop.tick() - This will cause a single iteration at the greatest common factor of time for all the given intervals, i.e., if you have two intervals at 50ms and 75ms, a single tick will be 25ms. This is useful for debugging, and for mimicing slowed-down time.
• loop.on() - Does the same thing as every. Inherited from EventEmitter.

EventedLoop in fact inherits all the methods from EventEmitter.

Limitations

• You can only set intervals at numbers whose millisecond equivalents are factors of 10ms. E.g. '1s', '20ms', '20', or '5h'.
• When the browser tab is blurred, the loop will stop. This is because of browser behaviour only allowing setInterval callbacks every 1000ms when not focused. I will probably make this an option with default behaviour.

Install

Node.js or Browserify (CommonJS)

If you are doing this on the front-end I would highly recommend Browserify for using this library, and it also works with Node.JS.

npm install eventedloop

Or if you're feeling dangerous:

npm install --save git://github.com/basicallydan/eventedloop#master

Regular ol' JavaScript

Download eventedloop.min.js or eventedloop.js and stick it your DOM somewhere, and you should find that the EventedLoop class is now exposed globally for your pleasure.

Possible uses

This was created as part of a game that Jon and I are developing, and it's quite good for games where a lot of things will be happening at different rates and you need a simple API for managing it.

A Game Loop Example

If you'd like to create a game loop, here's a really simple example of how you can do so, taken from the main game file in my SkiFree port:

var gameLoop = new EventedLoop();
gameLoop.on('20ms', game.draw);
gameLoop.on('20ms', game.update);
gameLoop.start();

Other things

You can also recreate the XKCD Frequency comic, like so: Show me the demo.

It's also a nice, cleaner version of setInterval which can be turned on and off at will.

Tests

If you've cloned this repo you can first npm install it, and then run npm test to run some beautiful vows tests.

Build

Build using Browserify:

browserify lib/main.js -o eventedloop.js

And minify with UglifyJS2

browserify lib/main.js | uglifyjs > eventedloop.min.js

Contributions

Please, please, please feel free to open an issue or fork this sucker and give it a pull request. It's a pretty cool little library but it could definitely do with some love, it was knocked together in a couple of hours during a heated evening in the mountains.