| Prev | Next | Start of Chapter | End of Chapter | Contents | Index | (4 out of 5)

Clock


The Clock capability forces the attached block to evaluate at a specified interval and not necessarily when the block receives new input data. You can attach a Clock capability to any block.

To specify the interval, set the attribute Evaluation Period. For example, if Evaluation Period is 1 minute, the block will evaluate once every minute.

If you do not want the block to evaluate when it receives new data, set Allow Intermediate Evaluation to no. The block will evaluate only at the specified interval.

To turn the Clock capability on and off, use the menu choices enable evaluation and disable evaluation.

When you turn the clock off, the block to which the Clock capability is attached evaluates whenever it receives a new value, as opposed to every Evaluation Period. When you turn the clock on, the attached block evaluates once every Evaluation Period.

If the Clock capability has Allow Intermediate Evaluation set to no, the attached block does not fire when the clock is turned off.

Updating a Graph Capability Independently of the Diagram

You can attach a Clock capability to a Graph Capability to cause the attached capability to update at regular intervals.

Configuring

This is the configuration panel for the Clock capability.


Attribute Description
Evaluation Period
The time interval at which the clock evaluates.
Allow Intermediate
Evaluation
Whether the clock also evaluates when it receives new data (yes) or only every Evaluation Period (no).

Example

The Clock capability in this figure forces the Data Entry Point to pass a value at a regular interval, even if its value does not change:


See Also

For more information on how to use this block, see the sections below.

Click here for more information...
Basic Block Behavior

| Prev | Next | Start of Chapter | End of Chapter | Contents | Index | (4 out of 5)

Copyright © 1996, Gensym Corporation, Inc.