Running one function without stopping another

Question

How can I run a timer while asking for user input from the console? I was reading about multiprocessing, and I tried to use this answer: Python: Executing multiple functions

Answer 1

Only addressing your concerns, here is a quick fix using threading :

import time
import sys  
import os 

def start_timer():
  global timer
  timer = 10 
  while timer > 0:
    time.sleep(1)
    timer -= 1
    sys.stdout.write ("There's only %i seconds left. Good luck. \r" % (timer))
    sys.stdout.flush()
    #cut_wire() ==> separate call is easier to handle
  if timer == 0:
  print("Boom!")
  os._exit(0)    #sys.exit() only exits thread

def cut_wire():
  wire_choice = raw_input("\n> ")
  if wire_choice == "cut wire" or wire_choice == "Cut Wire":
    stop_timer()
  else:
    print("Boom!")
    os._exit(0)    #same reason

if __name__ == '__main__':
  import threading
  looper = threading.Thread(target=start_timer)
  looper.start()
  cut_wire()