Run Loop In Background

Question

So, I am needing to run an infinite loop in the background of my app (written in JS) that will be used to cycle a ScrollableView every six seconds. However, while this loop runs, I'm unable to preform any other operations in the app as you would think.

To sum up, how can I run this loop at all times while still making the app operational?

Code:

function startScrolling() {
    for(; ; ) {
        sleep(6000);
        Ti.API.info('Scrolling To Index: ' + viewIndex);
        scrollView.scrollToView(viewIndex);
        if(viewIndex == 4) {
            viewIndex = 0;
            scrollView.scrollToView(viewIndex);
        } else {
            scrollView.scrollToView(viewIndex);
            viewIndex++;
        }
    }
}

function sleep(milliseconds) {
    var start = new Date().getTime();
    while((new Date().getTime() - start) < milliseconds) {
        // Do nothing
    }
}

EDIT: Solution

setInterval(function() {
    Ti.API.info('Scrolling To Index: ' + viewIndex);
        scrollView.scrollToView(viewIndex);
        if(viewIndex == 4) {
            viewIndex = 0;
            scrollView.scrollToView(viewIndex);
        } else {
            scrollView.scrollToView(viewIndex);
            viewIndex++;
        }
}, 6000);

Monomer

Javascript doesn't support threading so you'll want to use setInterval to run a function every X milliseconds. – Dolomite

Answer 1

Take a look at window.setInterval().

/* 
    Calls a function repeatedly, with a fixed 
    time delay between each call to that function.
*/
setInterval(startScrolling, 6000);

Inapprehensive

Got it, thanks. Just combined it into one method and posted the code above using an interval – Monomer

You're right. Deleting my comment. This is so much more convenient than using jQuery, helper functions or recursion. – Condition