Using Idle In you Code

Transcript

Have you ever heard of the idiom “An idle mind is the devil's workshop”? Doing nothing, avoiding work and lazing around the house are all ways of having an idle mind. For some people, being idle means being on the couch all day, watching TV, and dozing off now and again. People are idle when they are simply avoiding being active and getting things done. His mind must most definitely be a devil's workshop.

For computers, doing nothing is a waste of energy. If they are not being used, they go into idle mode. An activated screensaver is a version of an idle mode, the computer goes to sleep until it is reactivated. Computers are usually easier to wake up than people though.

To achieve idle mode, computer programmers use delays. A delay is a timer that counts to a number decided by a programmer. So idle mode doesn't mean that the computer is doing nothing at all. And using a delay function is efficient, because it uses little energy. When the duration of the delay is unknown, then a loop can be used so that the computer keeps returning to idle mode. Modern computers use idle time to save power. The idle mode of a computer saves energy because it is inactive.

Unlike when it is in standby mode. The computer saves all data when going into idle mode. devices in a mobile network like phones or other computers are also in idle mode when waiting for an active reception signal. Even cars go into idle mode when they are stopped at the traffic light and waiting for a green light. The car's engine stays on, but the car remains still.

One of the best practical uses of the idle mode is during long distance spaceflights. This robotic probe is off to explore an asteroid in another solar system. It will be pretty busy when it gets there collecting rock samples, taking photos looking for alien life. However, it will take six years to reach its destination. The probe has nothing to do in the meantime, what's the best thing to do when you don't need to do anything? Rest sleep, the probe is idle. It will wake up when there is work to do