Delaying a script to nearest quarter hour?

[Diana (Cda)]

I'd like to finetune a script I have in terms of when it loops launching an application. If I started it up now, at 06:39:50 a.m. (as I type), how could we get AI to wait for it to do its thing until gets to 06:45:00, the nearest quarter hour?

I imagine that after that, if we've set the script to loop every 15 minutes, it would then run the app every quarter hour on the quarter hour?

Thanks! :oD

Edited October 12, 2009 by Diana (Cda)

[Melba23]

Diana (Cda),

Try something like this (I have used @SEC rather than @MIN to speed up the demo, but the principle is the same):

HotKeySet("{ESC}", "On_Exit")

$Last_Sec = ""

While 1

    While 1

        Switch @SEC
            Case 00, 15, 30, 45
                $Sec = @SEC
                ExitLoop
        EndSwitch
        Sleep(10)

    WEnd

    If $Last_Sec <> $Sec Then
        ConsoleWrite($Sec & @CRLF)
        $Last_Sec = $Sec
    EndIf

WEnd

Func On_Exit()
    Exit
EndFunc

M23

[Diana (Cda)]

Hi! Something new again; I can't seem to "read" this code so I can't figure out 100% what it's doing <wry grin>. I left my launch code where it was and put this at the top. App wasn't launched. Okay. Then I did the old, "let's put my code in to these logical spots it might go", but that approach didn't work this time <g>. Script still sits in the systray, so of course, I'm doing something wrong ... again! <g>.

p.s., will this _just_ delay the script x number of minutes (or seconds with this code here <lol>)? The "Case 00, 15, 30, 45" makes me wonder. The rest of my script actually already determines the loop interval, in case that is what this 00, 15, 30, 45 reference is. I just didn't know how to approach a delay to nearest quarter hour (or actually whatever other time delay needed).

[Melba23]

Diana (Cda),

OK, let us go through the relevant sections of the code slowly - most of it was just there to show you how it worked (and I used seconds rather than minutes because it was faster! ).

You start your script at a random time (say 06:39:50) and you want it to wait until the next quarter hour point. At the quarter hour point, the minutes read 00, 15, 30 or 45 - we must wait until this is the case, i.e. 06:45:00.

So we set up a loop waiting until the @MIN macro returns one of the magic figures 00, 15, 30, 45:

While 1
    Switch @MIN
            Case 00, 15, 30, 45 ; Is it a quarter hour?
                ExitLoop ; Yes it is a quarter hour point so exit the loop and start running your script
    EndSwitch
    ; if we get here it is not  quarter hour and so we continue the loop
    Sleep(10) ; to prevent CPU overheating in a tight loop
WEnd

; Your script goes here

You say that you have already coded the timing interval so this code has done its job.

I hope this is clearer. Please ask again if not.

M23