preciseTimer

Builtin index

What it is

No chapter describes this one yet. It exists -- the name comes from the interpreter's own table -- but the prose has not been written. That is a gap in the documentation, not in the engine.

Overloads

One call shape — this function is not overloaded.

Examples

No documentation example calls this form yet.

How it works

timer([interval]) / preciseTimer([interval]) — a real, controllable stopwatch (2026-08-24): the fix for tic()/ toc()'s one real limitation, a single global slot that a nested or second concurrent timing region silently clobbers. Starts NOT running — start(t) begins counting — so construction and "begin counting" stay two explicit steps (every stopwatch API in wide use works this way, e.g. C#'s new Stopwatch() then .Start(); MATLAB's auto-starting tic is the outlier, not the norm). interval, if given, is the tick period on elapsed(t)/on elapsedOnce(t) fire at — irrelevant to plain elapsed()-only profiling use. preciseTimer sets a precise marker but is otherwise identical: both use the same monotonic Instant clock on this platform, so there is no actual precision difference today — the separate name exists for intent-signaling and forward compatibility, stated here plainly rather than quietly implied.

From the note above this builtin in the interpreter, where the reasoning was written down as it was built.