Thread: problem with countdown timer

Some problems could be found by indenting your code. For example, it seems you have "return 0;" too early (you have it inside your loop, so your game only counts one second).

Another problem is clock() is for measuring CPU time, not wall clock time. To wait for a number of seconds, maybe you want to do something like the following:

Code:

#include <time.h>
#include <unistd.h>

void wait_seconds(int sec)
{
    time_t t_now = time(NULL);
    time_t t_end = t_now + (time_t)sec;
    while (t_now <= t_end) {
        t_now = time(NULL);
        usleep(1000); /* avoid hogging cpu */
    }
}

usleep is OS specific but most environments have this or something similar. There is also normally a sleep function which sleeps for 1 second. However, doing it in this way gives you the chance to do some work while "waiting", which is probably what you will ultimately end up doing in a game.

Does your use of conio.h indicate you're using TurboC, or some other DOS-era compiler?

Second, you need to learn about indentation. Pick a style you like and stick to it. An indent style of "left" isn't going to work out for you, nor anybody that would care to help you.

Third, in order to implement what you ask, you need some kind of non-blocking I/O, which in turn means you need to tell us which OS/Compiler you're using. Standard C doesn't do non-blocking input.