Timing

Timing has two jobs: pause a straightforward sequence, or measure elapsed time. Use events when code should react later without holding the foreground evaluation.

Blink With A Delay

repeat 3 [
  led.on:
  wait: 75
  led.off:
  wait: 75
]

wait accepts a nonnegative millisecond count, polls for Ctrl-C once per millisecond, and returns nil. Later expressions in the same word do not run until the delay finishes.

Measure A Short Span

started is millis:
wait: 25
finished is millis:
elapsed is 0
set elapsed to finished - started

The visible clocks wrap at the tagged integer ceiling. Short modular deltas across the wrap remain useful; do not treat either clock as a wall-clock date or an indefinitely increasing persisted counter.

Milliseconds Are The Unit

Durations are plain integers, and the unit belongs to the word: wait and the timer events take milliseconds, and a word with a different unit carries it in its name (pulse.duration-ns, trace.delta-ns). Millisecond resolution is also the floor for delays — wait sleeps in 1-millisecond steps. Nanosecond-scale timing exists only where dedicated hardware provides it: the signal words capture and emit edges with 100-nanosecond quantization.

Delay, Timer Event, Or Signal Hardware?

• Use wait for a short, linear sequence.
• Use after or every when work should run at a later safe point while the prompt remains live.
• Use trace.* or pulse.* when edge timing must be captured or emitted with 100-nanosecond hardware quantization.

Continue with Events or Digital signals .