Util_Events_Timers

Timer list management

Timer Management

The Util.Events.Timers package provides a timer list that allows to have operations called on regular basis when a deadline has expired. It is very close to the Ada.Real_Time.Timing_Events package but it provides more flexibility by allowing to have several timer lists that run independently. Unlike the GNAT implementation, this timer list management does not use tasks at all. The timer list can therefore be used in a mono-task environment by the main process task. Furthermore you can control your own task priority by having your own task that uses the timer list.

The timer list is created by an instance of Timer_List:

Manager : Util.Events.Timers.Timer_List;

The timer list is protected against concurrent accesses so that timing events can be setup by a task but the timer handler is executed by another task.

Timer Creation

A timer handler is defined by implementing the Timer interface with the Time_Handler procedure. A typical timer handler could be declared as follows:

type Timeout is new Timer with null record;
overriding procedure Time_Handler (T : in out Timeout);
My_Timeout : aliased Timeout;

The timer instance is represented by the Timer_Ref type that describes the handler to be called as well as the deadline time. The timer instance is initialized as follows:

T : Util.Events.Timers.Timer_Ref;
Manager.Set_Timer (T, My_Timeout'Access, Ada.Real_Time.Seconds (1));

Timer Main Loop

Because the implementation does not impose any execution model, the timer management must be called regularly by some application's main loop. The Process procedure executes the timer handler that have ellapsed and it returns the deadline to wait for the next timer to execute.

Deadline : Ada.Real_Time.Time;
loop
   ...
   Manager.Process (Deadline);
   delay until Deadline;
end loop;

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