Time mathematics

1

Hi there,

Is there a way to do basic computation with points in time ? Or is there some sort of time comprehension in SC ?

showTime = Date.new(2023, 3, 17, 14, 21, 15, 5));
time = Date.getDate();
"Show starting in % seconds".format((showTime-time).asSeconds).postln;

for some reason I thought .secStamp gave me actual compiled seconds but it is 60 based.

e.g. in Python you can do
datetime.now() - datetime.strptime("0001", "%Y")
which returns:
datetime.timedelta(days=738594, seconds=54539, microseconds=479285)

2

https://doc.sccode.org/Classes/Scheduler.html

3

I donā€™t think so. It is a little odd you canā€™t convert to unix time from Date.

@mstep 's suggestion of scheduler will let you do these sorts of thing if you are ultimately trying to schedule something, but wonā€™t work if you are just after the value.

4

I implemented some pretty self-contained Date improvements like this I need for SCā€¦I think my PR was over five years ago. They werenā€™t merged in for a long time, then a few years later, when there was interest, unfortunately I didnā€™t have time to reactivate it and get it back in sync. It looks like others took on the work to get it updated, but then it seems to be still ā€œstalledā€ for the last few years again. Iā€™d pretty much forgotten about it until now.

5

I tried various avenues : thisThread.clock.seconds Date.getDate.rawSeconds, etc. But still. If I could get the absolute (unix) second my show starts and the current absolute second I guess Iā€™d be fine. (still having to convert from 1679056364 sec to pretty much today. e.g.: that second was 1 hour, 3 minutes, 35 seconds ago).

@totalgee, wow, is 5 years the average pull-request treatment delay ? :slight_smile:

6

For the record :
I have this setlist generator that creates a Yaml file for a given show that SC digest happily with .parseYAMLFile. Inside thereā€™s how many times Iā€™ve played every song (in total) and for that specific crowd, etc. Many other data inside e.g.: style, tempo, language, devices settings (PVK, BB, Aeros, etc).

Anywho, I have always wanted a gui with a clock to show where I am in my schedule (some gigs are an hours, other 2, etc) So, in my setlist there are many timing data : ExpectedStartTime, ExpectedEndTime, flags like : MustStopBeforeExpectedEndTime = true for specific time rigid gigs. I can actually start the show minutes before or after ExpectedStartTime then automatically set ActualStartTime, etc.

So, basic math with current time vs event time is something I though would be trivial in SC.

// e.g.:
~show.add(\sched -> Dictionary.new());
~show[\sched].add(\audienceEntry -> Date.?);
~show[\sched].add(\start -> Date.?);
~show[\sched].add(\end -> Date.?);
~show[\sched].add(\audienceExitEnd -> Date.?);
~show[\sched].add(\realStart -> nil);
~show[\sched].add(\realEnd -> nil);
7

Boy do I feel bad. Like Iā€™ve done something so terribly wrong.

Iā€™ve implemented my own point-in-time translator i.e. from an easy to write array [14, 15, 16] representing hours, minutes, seconds (base 24,60,60) of the event converted to "51316" second from midnight. Then, I can do proper math with the current second in the day which is contained in (0..86400).

Boy is this code ugly, unmaintainable, not even 24h+ proof (i.e. a show starting at 23:00 ending 02:00 the next day (e.g.: rave, etc)

Worst than worst, I also have to convert back this second (e.g. 51416) to a digestible [HH:MM:SS] by hand to show something else in my gui than : "Your show starts in 4439 seconds from now".

8

Well well well, if it isnā€™t pull request #3259 again after all these yearsā€¦ What ? Merged ?! :smiley: thank you so much for your work @totalgee, I canā€™t wait to try it out !

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