intro
So I'm currently writing an Electron application (info here), and I had a need to stop my JS thread for just 250ms (0.25s). In Python, I simply would have:
time.sleep(.25)
the rub
But I'm not used to writing to JS, so I thought linearly; I have to stop and wait, using a single command. However, that's not the case here. As it turns out, there are three options for those of you who found this thread:
var run = setTimeout(function1, 250);
This just runs the function after the timeout, in milliseconds. I haven't seen this interpretation of sleeping in any other language, which is why I was surprised at seeing this.var run = setInterval(function1, 250);
This continuously runs the function at that interval until stopped by the thread. It's super similar to the first option but saves us a loop. This is what I ended up using in my code; it fits nicely because I have to sync my page to a database at that interval, which saves me that extra, awkward, while loop.var waitTill = new Date(new Date().getTime() + seconds * 1000);
while(waitTill > new Date()) {}
Credits to this method go here. If you need an easy solution, this will simply halt the process. I "don't recommend it," because it's "not acceptable" and "has better alternatives." Honestly, just use this if you want to.
Comment/upvote if you found this tidbit useful. I'll start posting more regularly now that school is out, so expect some in-depth, interesting articles soon.