Time Capacity

• 1. Get the Current Time
• 2. Convertion from Operating System Time to the SARL Run-time Time
• 2.1. Get the Factor for Mapping to Operating-System Time
• 2.2. Convertion of a Time
• 2.3. Convertion of a Duration
• 3. Version Specification
• 4. Legal Notice

The built-in capacity Time provides tools for obtaining the current time from the run-time platform.

Time definition is application-dependent and platform-dependent. In other words, the time values replied by this capacity depends on the run-time environment: it may be the operating system time, or a simulator time.

1. Get the Current Time

For obtaining the current time, the getTime function is provides by the Time capacity:

def getTime(timeUnit : TimeUnit = null) : double

The timeUnit parameter will enable you to specify the unit of the replied value (hours, seconds, milliseconds, etc.). If it is not provided, the values will be expressed in seconds.

agent A {
	uses Time
	def myaction {
		var ct = getTime
		var ct2 = getTime(null)
		var ct3 = getTime(TimeUnit::HOURS)
	}
}

2. Convertion from Operating System Time to the SARL Run-time Time

At least, there is two different time scales:

• Operating System (OS) Time: it is the time of the operating system, and accessible from objects provided by the Java virtual machine for example.
• SARL Run-time Time: it is the time that is considered by the SARL run-time environment, and accessible from the Time capacity.

The function getOSTimeFactor provides the multiplication factor between these two time scales. The functions toOSTime and fromOSTime do the convertion of a time between these two scales. The functions toOSDuration and fromOSDuration do the convertion of a duration between these two scales.

2.1. Get the Factor for Mapping to Operating-System Time

For the time replied by the getTime function may be not the operating-system time, e.g. a simulation time. In order to map the time replied by the getTime function and the operating-system time, the getOSTimeFactor function replies a factor that could be applied so that:

operatingSystemTime = getOSTimeFactor * getTime

The provided function is:

def getOSTimeFactor : double

2.2. Convertion of a Time

For converting a time, you have access to two functions:

• toOSTime: converts a OS time to its equivalent time into the SARL run-time environment.
• fromOSTime converts a SARL run-time time to its equivalent into the OS.

// Convertion from OS to SRE
sreTime = fromOSTime(operatingSystemTime)
// Convertion from SRE to OS
operatingSystemTime = toOSTime(sreTime)

2.3. Convertion of a Duration

For converting a duration, you have access to two functions:

• toOSDuration: converts a OS duration to its equivalent time into the SARL run-time environment.
• fromOSDuration converts a SARL run-time duration to its equivalent into the OS.

// Convertion from OS to SRE
sreTime = fromOSDuration(operatingSystemTime)
// Convertion from SRE to OS
operatingSystemTime = toOSDuration(sreTime)

3. Version Specification

• Specification: SARL General-purpose Agent-Oriented Programming Language (“Specification”)
• Version: 0.15
• Status: Stable Release
• Release: 2025-09-11

4. Legal Notice

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