[erlang-questions] extended timer module to handle absolute time-of-day timers

[Serge Aleynikov]

Sorry - previous email had a wrong attachment.


I extended the timer module to handle absolute time specifications.

With this implementation it's possible to have messages sent on given
days of week at a certain time of day.  Five new functions are added:
      apply_at_local_time/4, send_at_local_time/3, exit_at_local_time/3,
      apply_daily_at_local_time/5, send_daily_at_local_time/4.


Example1: Send a shutdown message to Pid at 23:00:00 every Friday and
Sunday.
      timer:send_daily_at_local_time([fri,sun], {23,0,0}, Pid, shutdown).

Example2: Send a restart message to Pid at "6:00:00":
      timer:send_at_local_time({6,0,0}, Pid, restart).

Legacy timer_server's functionality is not affected.

The rationale behind this extension is that I frequently needed
functionality to schedule some "cron-like" recurrent activities, and was
always relying either on cron+erl_call or coding that activity with help
of timer:send_after/3 or timer:send_interval/2.  As I finally got sick
of dealing with shortcomings of the timer module, I put together this
extension.

Let me know if you also find it useful, and in such case perhaps we can
get it included in the OTP.

Serge

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