Python timeout counter?

Question

I have a program in python, which will be listening for an input signal. But this could be a very long time that it waits, so I want to have a message that is displayed every 5 seconds that just says "still waiting"

But I don't want the delay 1 second in the counter function to stop the program from listening to the signal, as the signal is timed, and an incorrect timing will produce an incorrect result.

I've so far got to this, but the whole script is delayed by 1 second each time $temp_2 is increased

#If option number 1 was selected, proceed
if(int(input_string) == 1):
    input_string = ""
    temp_2 = 0
    print('Currently listening for messages. System still working. Please wait.')

        while True:
            if(input_0 == False):
                input_string = input_string + "0"
                temp_1 = temp_1 + "0"

            if(input_1 == False):
                input_string = input_string + "1"
                temp_1 = temp_1 + "1"

            if(len(input_string) ==  8):
                output_string = output_string + chr(int(input_string, 2))
                input_string = ""

                if(len(temp_1) == 40):
                    if(temp_1 == "0011110001100101011011100110010000111110"):
                        print('Received terminator!')
                    else:
                        temp_1 = temp_1[8::]

                #increase the counter, but don't stop the script from
                #listening for the input. can it be done? 
                temp_2 = timeout_counter(temp_2)

                print(temp_2)

                if(temp_2 == 5):
                    print('still working. not broken.')
                    temp_2 = 0

The following is my timeout_counter() function:

def timeout_counter(temp_2):
    temp_2 = temp_2 + 1
    time.sleep(1)
    return (temp_2)

If you are taking input from user the program will block. I think you'd need a thread to display the message. — user3764893
– user3764893, Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 13:44

Thomas Dussaut · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-20 13:36:55Z

1

Instead of using time.sleep, you could just comapre the timestamp at a given iteration and the timestamp from the previous one, using time.time().

Your algorithm should look like that :

#If option number 1 was selected, proceed
if(int(input_string) == 1):
    input_string = ""
    temp_2 = time.time()
    print('Currently listening for messages. System still working. Please wait.')

        while True:
            if(input_0 == False):
                input_string = input_string + "0"
                temp_1 = temp_1 + "0"

            if(input_1 == False):
                input_string = input_string + "1"
                temp_1 = temp_1 + "1"

            if(len(input_string) ==  8):
                output_string = output_string + chr(int(input_string, 2))
                input_string = ""

                if(len(temp_1) == 40):
                    if(temp_1 == "0011110001100101011011100110010000111110"):
                        print('Received terminator!')
                    else:
                        temp_1 = temp_1[8::]

                #increase the counter, but don't stop the script from
                #listening for the input. can it be done? 
                temp_2 = timeout_counter(temp_2)

                print(temp_2)

                if(time.time() - temp_2 >= 5.):
                    print('still working. not broken.')
                    temp_2 = time.time()

Your timeout_counter() function is now useless :)

answered Jun 20, 2017 at 13:36

Thomas Dussaut

7551 gold badge7 silver badges21 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Thomas Dussaut Over a year ago

"I want to have a message that is displayed every 5 seconds" I think you misread the question ;)

Thomas Dussaut Over a year ago

You would be right indeed, if he wanted to wait for 5 minutes ;)

user3764893 Over a year ago

As I mentioned in the comment above, if the SO is taking input from user the program would block, and a thread might be needed in this case. Still the code from SO is incomplete, so I cant say much.

Harvey Fletcher Over a year ago

@ThomasDussaut Thanks, this has sorted it.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Python timeout counter?

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related