doo

doo is a Coffeescript library to create timed repeats of executions as well as delayed executions. It is a purely syntactic sugar that makes the joy of everyday scripting even more caffienated. The library is tested in Coffeescript, but it should work well with Javascript, as well.

The library is runtime specific, and is known to work fine with major browsers and node. If your runtime does not support it, raise an issue and I would look for ways to make it work for you.

Library provides functions doo, undoo, after in version 1.0.x

Examples

doo -> console.log "Hello world."
  # This will loop console.log foreover with 0 ms delay.

doo 5000, -> do_stuff()
  # This will run do_stuff() every 5 seconds. Time must be passed in ms.
  
doo 5000, "myTag", -> do_stuff()
  # This will run do_stuff() every 5 seconds. This loop is called "myTag"

The doo function uses setTimeout and loops through the callback function depending on the period passed or with 0 ms, if no period is passed. You can optionally pass a tag which will help you stop the looping at a later stage.

undoo "myTag"
  # This will stop running the doo iteration tagged as "myTag"

One of the painpoints of using setTimeout is the lack of simple control over iterating procedures. The library provides a simple mechanism where a tag can be passed during invokation of doo function, which can be used with undoo to stop iteration at any time during the execution of the program. The tags passed should be unique and get overwritten without warning. This should be diligently known to mitigate risk of zombie doo instances.

after 5000, -> do_stuff()
  # This will run do_stuff after 5 seconds.

Pretty self-explanatory, after runs the callback function after specified delay. This can also be used with doo to create dynamic looping. One can create a doo instance with small or no delay, and within that invoke after, delay of which one could set dynamically. This works great in fetching scripts or implementing dynamic repeat joobs.

Installation

doo is compatible with Node.js and all major web browsers. One can use npm:

npm install doo

and then require it as follows:

{doo, after, undoo} = require 'doo'

For other runtimes, use doo.js file from lib directory.

License

All sources are provided under MIT License. Look for LICENSE file for more details and permissions.