Global Timer in Javascript with Multiple Callbacks

Question

I want to create a global timer object in javascript and then be able to add callbacks to it on the fly. This way I can just use one global timer in my script to execute all

Answer 1

Just a slightly modified version of aekeus approach. Now with pause- & resumable timers, third arguments and a faster callbacks-loop:

function Interval(callback, freq) {

    // array of callback functions
    var args = arguments,
        callbacks = [callback],
        paused = false;

    // register the global timer
    var id = setInterval(function () {
        if(paused) return;
        var len = callbacks.length,
            i = len;
        while(i--) callbacks[len - 1 - i].apply(Interval, Array.prototype.slice.call(args, 2, args.length));
    }, freq);

    // return a Global Timer object
    return {
        id: function () {
            return id;
        },
        add: function (cb) {
            callbacks.push(cb);
        },
        clear: function () {
            if (id === null) return;
            clearInterval(id);
            id = null;
        },
        pause: function(){
            paused = true;
        },
        resume: function(){
            paused = false;
        }
    };
}

You can pass in extra-arguments like with default setInterval's (even in IE lt 9):

function callback(date) {
    console.log(date);
}

var interval = Interval(callback, 1000, new Date);

Usage example:

var interval = Interval(function () {
    console.log("init", new Date);
}, 1000);

interval.add(function () {
    console.log("a", new Date);
});

interval.add(function () {
    console.log("b", new Date);
});

document.onmousedown = interval.pause;
document.onmouseup = interval.resume;