Timers in Silverlight or Javascript?

Question

So I found that you could create an empty Storyboard, set the duration and by adding a "Completed" delegate, you can do something then restart then storyboard.

But this feels like it's almost identical to SetTimeout.  Any reason to choose one over the other?  I suspect the storyboard may be less performant, merely because it is new, but I could be wrong??

 Thoughts??

 Dave

Answer 1

In 1.1 currently, the only way to do timers is with a storyboard, so that's why you see that method frequently. As for which is better in 1.0 I don't really know.

Answer 2

I thought people used a HMLTimer in 1.1??  I haven't done too much 1.1, but I'm sure thats in there ?

Answer 3

This is reason enough for me to use the storyboard method.  I think I read somewhere that the HtmlTimer is going to be replaced somewhere down the line.

Answer 4

Maybe that was it...I know there was a reason why they said to use storyboards in 1.1...

Answer 5

THis shows a workaround by using an Animation Timer:

First set up an Animation Timer in your xaml...

<Canvas.Resources>
  <Storyboard x:Name="timer">
    <DoubleAnimation Duration="00:00:0.02" />
  </Storyboard>
</Canvas.Resources>

Then you can add an "tick" event handler and start up the timer..

timer.Completed += new EventHandler(timer_Completed);
timer.Begin();

And finally, make sure you restart the timer in the timer_Completed event.

void timer_Completed(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   // ... do per tick stuff here...

   // restart the timer
   timer.Begin();
}

Answer 6

And finally, make sure you restart the timer in the timer_Completed event.

Actually, it's probably better design to set the RepeatBehavior of the Storyboard to "Forever".  That will probably be a more accurate Timer than restarting it in the Completed event.  Then, if you choose, you can Stop() the Storyboard, in the Completed event, based on some piece of data.

Answer 7

Oh I wasn't aware that the Completed event still fires if the RepeatBehavior is forever. I'l have to try this.