Timer

I wanted to time an event in a batch file, come back to it later, and see how long the activity took. Using the command
TIME <NUL >>RESULT.TXT
before and after was doable, but clumsy. It also doesn't show elapsed time, I have to figure it. So I decided I needed a timer program, and it shouldn't be too hard to do (famous last words). By the time I got finished, it had takem two days. (Maybe I should have seen if there already is one. Then again, if everyone does that, nothing new would be created.) But anyway, here it is.

Usage

There are two ways to use this program:

1. To build from source, you need to already have installed, or download and install a copy, of QB64 Phoenix Edition, available from the QB64 Phoenix Edition repository
   Having installed QB64pe, just load timer.bas in the QB64pe IDE, click on Run, Change Command$, type on in the box and click on Ok. Next click on Run, Start and it will compile and run the program, which will create a time event. To tell Timer the event is completed, in the QB64pe IDE, click on Run, Change Command$, type off in the box and click on Ok. Nex click on Run, Start and it will show starting time, ending time, and elapsed time.
2. Use the precompiled binary. Checksums are listed below.

In either case, you will now have timer.exe, which you can use the same way from the DOS command line, by typing timer on to start a timer, and timer off. Or, you can have multiple timers, just give them an identifier starting with a number, like timer 6 on or timer on 6. If you use a timer number, you have to remember that identifier, e.g. the event started by timer start 5 or timer on 6, each has to be stopped with timer off 5 or timer stop 6. If you're not sure, you can type timer --list and all pending timers will be listed. This can be used in a batch file, by

1. Placing timer on /b in the batch file before some activity you want to time
2. put in the commands to be executed
3. place timer off /b after all of them. It will report start and stop times and elapsed time between them. You could set up a couple of desktop shortcuts, one running a timer on and the other running a timer off.

Features

The program takes advantage of a QB64 feature, when a program reaches an END statement it keeps the program window open until a requested keypress is made. This wait can be dispensed with by using /b, -b or --batch. And you can always get the list of commands and options with the --help option.

Version 1.1

A number of bug fixes, mostly cosmetic, added some exampls, and stopped the creation of a second console window when run from the command line.

MD5 hash of timer.exe:
866cd0d04e173409d6ab37b481ba049c The SHA256 checksum for timer.exe is
eda3011045d9db12345c5246838bac0bbdb3be0081e0d64243d513eeb26312e4 The SHA512 checksum for timer.exe is
799d147f881e7f74ba4305f71b64328eca5acafb7ae2388f45b4ff414c658a14ced12c53cdef15a30861cc21fce1b6a1e72a7031221686f1babc794b1aecc9f8

Non-Windows users

While the program was written for windows, conceivably it could be used on Linux or MacOS. The only Windows-specific code is used to retrieve certain file information, and has been marked with $IF WINDOWS THEN. Linux and Mac have a simpler, standard method of their own for the information I need.

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