Repeating function invoking like NSTimer in C

Question

I find myself in need for a repeating block of code I can execute. If I were in an object I could simply pass self to the NSTimer scheduling. I am in a pure C project at the moment and I don't see any obvious NSTimer analogs. Is there a correct way to approach this?

Answer 1

I don't know much of anything about the foundation framework but you can hack together a timer using the mach/POSIX APIs which allow you to tap into kernel services and processes for your C application.

Using a combination of mach_absolute_time() and nanosleep() system calls may allow you to emulate a timer. It's a bit nasty if you've never done any systems programming on a *NIX like platform.

On Linux, it's much easier to implement a POSIX timer or make use of clock_gettime() and clock_nanosleep (POSIX functions) which are not available on the mac.

There's lots of info on Linux/Unix systems programming in C but not so much on a mac, so I'd recommend having a look at this question.

Also, I made my own little emulation of clock_gettime() and clock_nanosleep for the mac (shameless plug) Find it here