timer.nvim

Motivation

I want to see diagnostics errors in normal mode, when I stay on a line for some time. I also want to see func signature while typing right away when typing.

So I set CursorHold and CursorHoldI autocommands to view helps.

But wait, they both being triggered within updatetime timeout!

Not anymore...

Install

• packer.nvim

use 'alex-popov-tech/timer.nvim'

Usage

Plugin is pretty minimalistic:

require "timer".add( -- require function and call it
    function() -- pass your function
        local next = math.random(1000, 3000)
        print("hello, next tick in " .. next .. "ms...")
        return next -- return next 'tick' time to wait
    end
)

So all you need to do is to pass your function and return a number of milliseconds to wait before your func will be called again.

Real world examples

Those are from my dotfiles

• show signature help in insert mode when available

  require "timer".add(
      function()
          if vim.fn.mode() == "i" then
              require("lspsaga.signaturehelp").signature_help()
          end
          return 2000
      end
  )
  

  

• show line diagnostic in normal mode

    require "timer".add(
      function()
          if vim.fn.mode() == "n" then
              require "lspsaga.diagnostic".show_line_diagnostics()
          end
          return 2000
      end
    )
  

  

Advanced examples

You can use clojures to achieve more dynamics:

local tick = true -- control flag
require "timer".add(
    function()
        if tick == true then
            print("tick")
        else
            print("tack")
        end
        tick = not tick -- update control flag on each tick
        return 1000
    end
)

And you even can use that to control frequency of 'ticks':

local count = 1 -- keep counter outside of tick
require "timer".add(
    function()
        local currentTimer = count
        count = count + 1 -- update it each tick
        print("next tick in " .. currentTimer .. "sec")
        return currentTimer * 1000
    end
)

License

MIT