al_create_timer(3alleg5)

💖 al_create_timer 💖

okay bestie so this is a page from the Allegro 5 API — yes, that Allegro, the one your gamedev mutuals won't shut up about 🎀 — and it's all about making a timer. no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

al_create_timer — Allegro 5 API. it literally does what it says on the tin, she makes timers 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <allegro5/allegro.h>

ALLEGRO_TIMER *al_create_timer(double speed_secs)

like, that's the whole vibe. one include, one function, one double. iconic.

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so what this does is it allocates and initializes a timer. that's it, that's the job 🫶

if it goes well? you get back a pointer to a brand-new timer object, main character energy, freshly spawned. if it does not go well? you get NULL back. no timer, no party, we're sobbing 😭

now, speed_secs — and this is the part people get wrong — is in seconds per "tick". so it's not "how many ticks per second", it's "how long one tick takes". and it must be positive. zero? negative? not it. the function said no 🚫

⚠️ also, and this is important bestie: the new timer is initially stopped. it is not running. it is sitting there, pretty, asleep, doing absolutely nothing. you have to wake it up with al_start_timer(3alleg5) before any ALLEGRO_EVENT_TIMER(3alleg5) events start getting sent. so if you're sitting there like "why is my timer not timing" — that's why. you didn't start her. periodt.

usage note: typical granularity is on the order of microseconds — cute, right? — but with some drivers it might only be milliseconds. so like, don't be shocked if your precision is giving "close enough" on certain setups. it's not you, it's the driver 💀

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• al_start_timer(3alleg5) — the one that actually makes her go 🏃‍♀️
• al_destroy_timer(3alleg5) — the one you will forget to call, and then leak. we've all been there 🙈

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💜 this lil writeup came to you straight from the Allegro reference manual, and yes, the page itself is al_create_timer(3alleg5) — same name top and bottom, she's consistent like that 👑 now go start that timer, fr fr 🎀✨