implement time delay in c

Question

I don\'t know exactly how to word a search for this.. so I haven\'t had any luck finding anything.. :S

I need to implement a time delay in C.

for example I w

Answer 1

Here is how you can do it on most desktop systems:

#ifdef _WIN32
    #include 
#else
    #include 
#endif

void wait( int seconds )
{   // Pretty crossplatform, both ALL POSIX compliant systems AND Windows
    #ifdef _WIN32
        Sleep( 1000 * seconds );
    #else
        sleep( seconds );
    #endif
}

int
main( int argc, char **argv)
{
    int running = 3;
    while( running )
    {   // do something
        --running;
        wait( 3 );
    }
    return 0; // OK
}

Here is how you can do it on a microcomputer / processor w/o timer:

int wait_loop0 = 10000;
int wait_loop1 = 6000;

// for microprocessor without timer, if it has a timer refer to vendor documentation and use it instead.
void
wait( int seconds )
{   // this function needs to be finetuned for the specific microprocessor
    int i, j, k;
    for(i = 0; i < seconds; i++)
    {
        for(j = 0; j < wait_loop0; j++)
        {
            for(k = 0; k < wait_loop1; k++)
            {   // waste function, volatile makes sure it is not being optimized out by compiler
                int volatile t = 120 * j * i + k;
                t = t + 5;
            }
        }
    }
}

int
main( int argc, char **argv)
{
    int running = 3;
    while( running )
    {   // do something
        --running;
        wait( 3 );
    }
    return 0; // OK
}

The waitloop variables must be fine tuned, those did work pretty close for my computer, but the frequency scale thing makes it very imprecise for a modern desktop system; So don't use there unless you're bare to the metal and not doing such stuff.