'\"
'\" Copyright (c) 1990-1994 The Regents of the University of California.
'\" Copyright (c) 1994-1995 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
'\"
'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
'\" 
'\" @(#) after.n 1.21 95/09/01 10:35:38
'\" 
.so STk-man.macros
.TH after n 3.1 STk "Tk Built-In Commands"
.BS
'\" Note:  do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below!
.SH NAME
after \- Execute a command after a time delay
.SH SYNOPSIS
(\fBafter \fIms\fR)
.sp
(\fBafter \fIms \fR\fIthunk\fR)
.sp
(\fBafter 'cancel \fIid\fR)
.sp
(\fBafter 'cancel \fIthunk)\fR
.sp
(\fBafter 'idle \fR?\fIthunk\fR?)
.sp
(\fBafter info\fR)
.sp
(\fBafter info \fR\fIid\fR)
.BE

.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
The \fBafter\fR procedure is used to delay execution of the program or to execute
a procedure in background after a delay.  It has several forms,
depending on the first argument to the procedure:
.TP
(\fBafter \fIms\fR)
\fIMs\fR must be an integer giving a time in milliseconds.
The procedure sleeps for \fIms\fR milliseconds and then returns.
While the procedure is sleeping the application does not respond to
X events or any other events.
.TP
(\fBafter \fIms \fIthunk\fR)
In this form the procedure returns immediately, but it arranges
for a STk procedure to be executed \fIms\fR milliseconds later as a
background event handler.
The procedure will be executed exactly once, at the given time.
The delayed procedure must be a \fIthunk\fR.
If an error occurs while executing the delayed procedure then the
\fBtkerror\fR mechanism is used to report the error.
The \fBafter\fR procedure returns a symbol that can be used
to cancel the delayed procedure using \fBafter cancel\fR.
.TP
(\fBafter 'cancel \fIid\fR)
Cancels the execution of a delayed procedure that
was previously scheduled.
\fIId\fR indicates which procedure should be canceled;  it must have
been the return value from a previous \fBafter\fR procedure.
If the procedure given by \fIid\fR has already been executed then
the \fBafter cancel\fR procedure has no effect.
.TP
(\fBafter 'cancel \fIthunk\fR)
This procedure also cancels the execution of a delayed procedure. If there is
a pending procedure that matches \fIthunk\fR, it is cancelled and will
never be executed; if no such procedure is currently
pending then the \fBafter cancel\fR procedure has no effect.
.TP
(\fBafter 'idle \fIthunk\fR)
Arranges for the given \fIthunk\fR to be evaluated later as an idle handler
The script will be run exactly once, the next time the Tk event
loop is entered and there are no events to process.
The procedure returns an identifier that can be used
to cancel the delayed procedure using \fBafter cancel\fR.
If an error occurs while executing the script then the
\fBtkerror\fR mechanism is used to report the error.
.TP
(\fBafter 'info \fR\fIid\fR)
.TP
(\fBafter 'info\fR)
This procedure returns information about existing event handlers.
If no \fIid\fR argument is supplied, then the procedure returns
a list of the identifiers for all existing
event handlers created by the \fBafter\fR procedure for this
interpreter.
If \fIid\fR is supplied, it specifies an existing handler;
\fIid\fR must have been the return value from some previous call
to \fBafter\fR and it must not have triggered yet or been cancelled.
In this case the procedure returns a list with two elements.
The first element of the list is the script associated
with \fIid\fR, and the second element is either
\fBidle\fR or \fBtimer\fR to indicate what kind of event
handler it is.


.SH "SEE ALSO"
tkerror