Re: About idle timers

[phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk (Phillip Lord)]

Xue Fuqiao <xfq.free@gmail.com> writes:
> In (info "(elisp) Idle Timers"):
>
>   An idle timer set for 600 seconds will run when ten minutes have
>   elapsed since the last user command was finished, even if subprocess
>   output has been accepted thousands of times within those ten minutes,
>   and even if there have been garbage collections and autosaves.
>
> Will the idle timer run if Emacs isn't idle after 600 seconds?

No. Emacs has to be idle for at least 600 seconds or the idle timer will
not run. Idle timers are very useful for running things "in the
background" that don't interrupt the user. You do have to use them
carefully though, because once the idle timer starts to run, it will
continue to run to completion. So, if you want to do anything
computational intensive, you need to check constantly to see if their is
user input pending. I normally do this with "sit-for".

Phil