CLOCK

Syntax

CLOCK [#channel] [,format$]

Location

Toolkit II, THOR XVI

The command CLOCK creates a multitasking digital clock job named Clock. If no channel parameter is stated, CLOCK will open its own window (con_60x20a448x206), which is intended for F1-monitor mode (see WMON), otherwise the given channel will be used.

Format$ is optional and is used to define how the clock will appear on screen. It can contain any text you desire (except for the characters % or $), but there are certain special characters (see below) which allow you to alter the way in which the clock is presented; so CLOCK “TEA AT 4” might remind you when tea time is, but will have no effect on the display of the clock.

The format is defined by using certain set series of strings. The following special characters will affect the way in which the clock is displayed (the default format string is “$d %d $m %h:%m:%s” which is ideal) :

  • %d Day of month - 2 digits

  • $d Day of week - 3 characters

  • %h Hour (24h) - 2 digits

  • $m Month - 3 characters

  • %m Minute - 2 digits

  • %s Seconds - 2 digits

  • %y Year - 2 digits (last two digits)

  • %c Century - 2 digits (see note 4 below)

A newline can be inserted by either padding out the string with spaces or by adding CHR$(10) inside the string.

Example

CLOCK #2,’Date: %d $m %y’ & chr$(10) & ‘Time: $d %h:%m’

NOTE 1

There is no difference between upper case and lower case letters, so %d has the same effect as %D. However, do watch the difference between $m and %m!

NOTE 2

Any attempt to open a clock in channel #0 will be ignored and the default window opened.

NOTE 3

Unfortunately for Pointer Environment users, there is no way of ‘unlocking’ the clock so that it can operate alongside other Jobs. On the THOR XVI this is alleviated by ensuring that the Job is always owned by Job 0.

NOTE 4

v2.25+ of Toolkit II introduced a further special character for use in the format string. This is %c, which returns the first two digits of the year, for example %c%y will print the current year as four digits.

NOTE 5

On v6.41 of the THOR XVI, if CLOCK has to open its own window, this window is in fact owned by SuperBASIC rather than the CLOCK task. This means that if CLOCK is removed other than by using NO_CLOCK, (eg. with RJOB) the channel can be left open.

CROSS-REFERENCE

Use SDATE or ADATE to set the system date and time.

DATE$ and DATE return the current time.

NO_CLOCK removes the CLOCK on the THOR.