Visual Basic: Factoring Time in Light Alternation

[nick227]

Hey all. I am working on this program that will light LEDs from the parallel port of my computer. I think i have everything all set, but i want to do something cool. I was thinking of alternating lights between three colors. i am new to VB (and programming in general) and was wondering if there was a way to factor time into alternating the lights. Can i somehow make a method or some sort of loop that let's me run one set of lights for say 5 seconds or any amount of time then move on to the next set of lights? Basically, how do i factor in time?

Also, if i can do this with VB, can i do it with java? say i want to have a message appear for 10 seconds, then disappear and have another message appear for 10 seconds?

 

[DaveC426913]

Hey all. I am working on this program that will light LEDs from the parallel port of my computer. I think i have everything all set, but i want to do something cool. I was thinking of alternating lights between three colors. i am new to VB (and programming in general) and was wondering if there was a way to factor time into alternating the lights. Can i somehow make a method or some sort of loop that let's me run one set of lights for say 5 seconds or any amount of time then move on to the next set of lights? Basically, how do i factor in time?

Certainly. Look at the VB Timer control. You drag it onto your page and set its properties (look at the interval property) and turn it on and it will fire each interval.

In Java, you won't have it all wrapped up in a control, but you will have access to Time functions. You'd store the current Time, and test it using a loop. When the old and current time are the appropraite number apart, you trigger your action. (You can do it the same way in VB too.)

 

[quicknote]

I can tell you that what you are looking for is called "time-based programming". This is a common concept in computer programming, where the sequence of events is controlled by time. In Visual Basic, you can use the "Timer" control to create timed events. You can set the interval for the timer and then write code to control what happens when the timer reaches that interval. This can be used to control the alternating lights in your program.

In terms of displaying messages for a specific amount of time, this can also be achieved using time-based programming. In VB, you can use a similar approach with the "Timer" control to control when the message appears and disappears. In Java, you can use the "Timer" class to schedule tasks to be executed at specific intervals. Both languages have similar capabilities when it comes to time-based programming.

It's great that you're exploring different ways to enhance your program. Time-based programming is a useful skill to have in your programming toolkit and can be applied in many different applications. Good luck with your project!