SetTimer() Should Not Be Used in Console Applications

 Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
Article ID: Q102482
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with: 

        - Microsoft Windows NT versions 3.5 and 3.51
    - Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.0

SUMMARY

SetTimer() was not designed to be used with a console application because it requires a message loop to dispatch the timer signal to the timer procedure. In a console application, this behavior can be easily emulated with a thread that is set to wait on an event.

MORE INFORMATION

In Windows NT 3.1, SetTimer() can work within a console application, but it requires a thread in a loop calling GetMessage() and DispatchMessage().

For example, 

   while (1)
   {
      GetMessage();
      DispatchMessage();
   }
Because this requires a thread looping, there is no real advantage to adding a timer to a console application over using a thread waiting on an event.

Another option is to use a multimedia timer, which does not require a message loop and has a higher resolution. In Windows NT 3.5, the resolution can be set to 1 msec using timeBeginPeriod(). See the help for timeSetEvent() and the Multimedia overview. Any application using Multimedia calls must include MMSYSTEM.H, and must link with WINMM.LIB.

Additional reference words: 3.10 3.50 3.51 4.00 95
KBCategory: kbui
KBSubcategory: UsrMisc

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Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
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