Change timer period to type of bigint in nanoseconds (#1038)

Per current implementation, the timer period is in milliseconds, because the range limitation of integer that JavaScript can [represents](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Number/MAX_SAFE_INTEGER). While, after [`BigInt`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/BigInt) introduced, we can change the timer period to type of `bigint` in nanoseconds, which aligns with other ROS2 clients, like `rclpy`.

This patch implements:

1. Change the timer period to type of `bigint` in nanoseconds for JavaScript side.
2. Get the period from `v8::BigInt` object as `int64_t` and pass it to `rcl` from C++ side.
3. Update the related unit tests accordingly.

Fix: #1037

Author: minggangw

example/action-client-cancel-example.js

@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ class FibonacciActionClient {
     this._node.getLogger().info('Goal accepted');
 
     // Start a 2 second timer
-    this._timer = this._node.createTimer(2000, () =>
+    this._timer = this._node.createTimer(BigInt(2000000), () =>
       this.timerCallback(goalHandle)
     );
   }

example/action-server-defer-example.js

@@ -83,7 +83,9 @@ class FibonacciActionServer {
   handleAcceptedCallback(goalHandle) {
     this._node.getLogger().info('Deferring execution...');
     this._goalHandle = goalHandle;
-    this._timer = this._node.createTimer(3000, () => this.timerCallback());
+    this._timer = this._node.createTimer(BigInt(3000000), () =>
+      this.timerCallback()
+    );
   }
 
   cancelCallback(goalHandle) {

example/lifecycle-node-example.js

@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ class App {
   onActivate() {
     console.log('Lifecycle: ACTIVATE');
     this._publisher.activate();
-    this._timer = this._node.createTimer(1000, () => {
+    this._timer = this._node.createTimer(BigInt('1000000000'), () => {
       this._publisher.publish(`${this._count--}`);
     });
     return rclnodejs.lifecycle.CallbackReturnCode.SUCCESS;

example/timer-example.js

@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ rclnodejs
   .then(() => {
     let node = rclnodejs.createNode('timer_example_node');
 
-    let timer = node.createTimer(1000, () => {
+    let timer = node.createTimer(BigInt(1000000), () => {
       console.log('One second escaped!');
 
       console.log('Cancel this timer.');

lib/node.js

@@ -507,7 +507,7 @@ class Node extends rclnodejs.ShadowNode {
 
   /**
    * Create a Timer.
-   * @param {number} period - The number representing period in millisecond.
+   * @param {bigint} period - The number representing period in nanoseconds.
    * @param {function} callback - The callback to be called when timeout.
    * @param {Clock} [clock] - The clock which the timer gets time from.
    * @return {Timer} - An instance of Timer.
@@ -519,22 +519,11 @@ class Node extends rclnodejs.ShadowNode {
       clock = arguments[3];
     }
 
-    if (typeof period !== 'number' || typeof callback !== 'function') {
+    if (typeof period !== 'bigint' || typeof callback !== 'function') {
       throw new TypeError('Invalid argument');
     }
 
-    // The period unit is millisecond in JavaScript side. When being passed to the
-    // C++ side, the value will be converted to nanosecond, which goes into a uint64_t
-    // with maxmium value of 2^64-1. So the maxmium is UINT64_MAX in ns, that's 0x10c6f7a0b5ed in ms.
-    const MAX_TIMER_PERIOD_IN_MILLISECOND = 0x10c6f7a0b5ed;
-    if (period > 0x10c6f7a0b5ed || period < 0) {
-      throw new RangeError(
-        `Parameter must be between 0.0 and ${MAX_TIMER_PERIOD_IN_MILLISECOND}`
-      );
-    }
-
     const timerClock = clock || this._clock;
-
     let timerHandle = rclnodejs.createTimer(
       timerClock.handle,
       this.context.handle,
@@ -573,7 +562,7 @@ class Node extends rclnodejs.ShadowNode {
     }
 
     const period = Math.round(1000 / hz);
-    const timer = this._rateTimerServer.createTimer(period);
+    const timer = this._rateTimerServer.createTimer(BigInt(period) * 1000000n);
     const rate = new Rates.Rate(hz, timer);
 
     return rate;

lib/rate.js

@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ class RateTimerServer {
   /**
    * Create a new timer instance with callback set to NOP.
    *
-   * @param {number} period - The period in milliseconds
+   * @param {bigint} period - The period in nanoseconds.
    * @returns {Timer} - The new timer instance.
    */
   createTimer(period) {

lib/timer.js

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ class Timer {
   }
 
   /**
-   * @type {number}
+   * @type {bigint} - The period of the timer in nanoseconds.
    */
   get period() {
     return this._period;
@@ -73,18 +73,18 @@ class Timer {
 
   /**
    * Get the interval since the last call of this timer.
-   * @return {number} - the interval value - ms.
+   * @return {bigint} - the interval value in nanoseconds.
    */
   timeSinceLastCall() {
-    return parseInt(rclnodejs.timerGetTimeSinceLastCall(this._handle), 10);
+    return rclnodejs.timerGetTimeSinceLastCall(this._handle);
   }
 
   /**
    * Get the interval until the next call will happen.
-   * @return {number} - the interval value - ms.
+   * @return {bigint} - the interval value in nanoseconds.
    */
   timeUntilNextCall() {
-    return parseInt(rclnodejs.timerGetTimeUntilNextCall(this._handle), 10);
+    return rclnodejs.timerGetTimeUntilNextCall(this._handle);
   }
 }
 

src/rcl_bindings.cpp

@@ -319,24 +319,27 @@ NAN_METHOD(CreateTimer) {
       Nan::To<v8::Object>(info[1]).ToLocalChecked());
   rcl_context_t* context =
       reinterpret_cast<rcl_context_t*>(context_handle->ptr());
-  int64_t period_ms = Nan::To<int64_t>(info[2]).FromJust();
-
+  if (!info[2]->IsBigInt()) {
+    Nan::ThrowTypeError("Timer period must be a BigInt");
+    return;
+  }
+  v8::Local<v8::BigInt> bigInt = info[2].As<v8::BigInt>();
+  int64_t period_nsec = bigInt->Int64Value();
   rcl_timer_t* timer =
       reinterpret_cast<rcl_timer_t*>(malloc(sizeof(rcl_timer_t)));
   *timer = rcl_get_zero_initialized_timer();
 
 #if ROS_VERSION > 2305  // After Iron.
   THROW_ERROR_IF_NOT_EQUAL(
       RCL_RET_OK,
-      rcl_timer_init2(timer, clock, context, RCL_MS_TO_NS(period_ms), nullptr,
+      rcl_timer_init2(timer, clock, context, period_nsec, nullptr,
                       rcl_get_default_allocator(), /*autostart=*/true),
       rcl_get_error_string().str);
 #else
-  THROW_ERROR_IF_NOT_EQUAL(
-      RCL_RET_OK,
-      rcl_timer_init(timer, clock, context, RCL_MS_TO_NS(period_ms), nullptr,
-                     rcl_get_default_allocator()),
-      rcl_get_error_string().str);
+  THROW_ERROR_IF_NOT_EQUAL(RCL_RET_OK,
+                           rcl_timer_init(timer, clock, context, period_nsec,
+                                          nullptr, rcl_get_default_allocator()),
+                           rcl_get_error_string().str);
 #endif
 
   auto js_obj = RclHandle::NewInstance(timer, clock_handle, [](void* ptr) {
@@ -410,9 +413,9 @@ NAN_METHOD(TimerGetTimeUntilNextCall) {
       RCL_RET_OK, rcl_timer_get_time_until_next_call(timer, &remaining_time),
       rcl_get_error_string().str);
 
-  info.GetReturnValue().Set(
-      Nan::New<v8::String>(std::to_string(RCL_NS_TO_MS(remaining_time)))
-          .ToLocalChecked());
+  v8::Local<v8::BigInt> bigInt =
+      v8::BigInt::New(v8::Isolate::GetCurrent(), remaining_time);
+  info.GetReturnValue().Set(bigInt);
 }
 
 NAN_METHOD(TimerGetTimeSinceLastCall) {
@@ -425,9 +428,9 @@ NAN_METHOD(TimerGetTimeSinceLastCall) {
       RCL_RET_OK, rcl_timer_get_time_since_last_call(timer, &elapsed_time),
       rcl_get_error_string().str);
 
-  info.GetReturnValue().Set(
-      Nan::New<v8::String>(std::to_string(RCL_NS_TO_MS(elapsed_time)))
-          .ToLocalChecked());
+  v8::Local<v8::BigInt> bigInt =
+      v8::BigInt::New(v8::Isolate::GetCurrent(), elapsed_time);
+  info.GetReturnValue().Set(bigInt);
 }
 
 NAN_METHOD(CreateTimePoint) {

test/publisher_array_setup.js

@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ rclnodejs
       effort: [4, 5, 6],
     };
 
-    var timer = node.createTimer(100, () => {
+    var timer = node.createTimer(BigInt('100000000'), () => {
       publisher.publish(state);
     });
     rclnodejs.spin(node);

test/publisher_msg.js

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ rclnodejs
     msg.data = rclValue;
 
     var publisher = node.createPublisher(msgType, rclType + '_channel');
-    var timer = node.createTimer(100, () => {
+    var timer = node.createTimer(BigInt('100000000'), () => {
       publisher.publish(msg);
     });