Scheduling improvement

[jsa91]

Hi,

I'd like some feedback on my while loop. I'm using a driver to display clock on a ILI9341 display which is working fine. At certain times I'd like to be able to call my functions like this:

while True:
    t = time.localtime()
    hrs.value(hstart * uv(-t[3]*pi/6 - t[4]*pi/360), YELLOW)
    mins.value(mstart * uv(-t[4] * pi/30), YELLOW)
    secs.value(sstart * uv(-t[5] * pi/30), RED)
    dial.text('{} {} {}'.format(days[t[6]], t[2], months[t[1] - 1]))
    refresh(ssd)
   
    hh = t[3]
    mm = t[4]
    ss = t[5]
   
    if hh == 0 and mm == 0 and ss == 0:
        my_first_function()
       
    if hh == 14 and mm == 0 and ss == 0:
        my_second_function()
    
    if hh != current_hour:
        my_third_function()
    
    current_hour = hh

    time.sleep(1)

I have a feeling that this is not so effective. How can I improve my code?

[robert-hh]

There is just little room for improvement. The if clauses may be partially exclusive, at least the first two. So you could use elif for the second and optionally the third if.
I see a different problem in this code. The execution of the loop content takes a while. So it may happen that the situation ss == 0 is missed. That will happen, if time.localtime() is called at the end of a 59th second, and the time for the loop and time.sleep(1) adds up to more than 1 second. Then the next ss value will be >0. You shoudl see that already in the fact, that the second increases sometimes by 2 or more.
So instead of ss == 0 you need a kind a state symbol, which is e.g. set True when e.g. ss < 3 and set False when e.g. ss > 30, and replace ss == 0 with a test of this symbol is True.

[robert-hh]

or it could be something like:

current_hour = time.localtime()[3]
while True:
    t = time.localtime()
    hrs.value(hstart * uv(-t[3]*pi/6 - t[4]*pi/360), YELLOW)
    mins.value(mstart * uv(-t[4] * pi/30), YELLOW)
    secs.value(sstart * uv(-t[5] * pi/30), RED)
    dial.text('{} {} {}'.format(days[t[6]], t[2], months[t[1] - 1]))
    refresh(ssd)
   
    hh = t[3]

    if hh != current_hour:
        if hh == 0:
            my_first_function()
        elif hh == 14:
            my_second_function()
        else:
            my_third_function()

    current_hour = hh

    time.sleep(1)

The check for mm and ss is not needed, since current_hour != hh is only valid at the start of an hour.

[jsa91]

Thank you for your answer @robert-hh! That code seem to work exactly like how I want it to.

[bulletmark]

This is a primitive way to schedule stuff though. Better to use something like mcron or micropython async crontab.

[jsa91]

Okey, I'll check that out. Thank you!