**Alternative to `setInterval` and `setTimeout`** JavaScript's `setTimeout()` and `setInterval()` are evil and not precise... 1. Both functions have a delay of a varying quantity of milliseconds. Please see: https://andrewduthie.com/2013/12/31/creating-a-self-correcting-alternative-to-javascripts-setinterval/ 2. Both functions are very resource-intensive because they execute several times every second. A new alternative is `window.requestAnimationFrame()`, which is less resource-intensive, disabled on page blur, and does not slow down other stuff. *This makes it the perfect substitute for a modern `setTimeout()` and `setInterval()`.* So I wrote these functions: **Description** These functions use `requestAnimationframe()` to check if the time has passed based on the elapsed Time calculated from `Date.now()`. The time passed is more precise than the native functions and theoretically less resource-intensive. Another advantage (or disadvantage) is that the functions are not executed on page blur. Good for: animations, visual effects Bad for: timers, clock **RafTimeout** window.rtimeOut=function(callback,delay){ var dateNow=Date.now, requestAnimation=window.requestAnimationFrame, start=dateNow(), stop, timeoutFunc=function(){ dateNow()-start<delay?stop||requestAnimation(timeoutFunc):callback() }; requestAnimation(timeoutFunc); return{ clear:function(){stop=1} } } **RafInterval** window.rInterval=function(callback,delay){ var dateNow=Date.now, requestAnimation=window.requestAnimationFrame, start=dateNow(), stop, intervalFunc=function(){ dateNow()-start<delay||(start+=delay,callback()); stop||requestAnimation(intervalFunc) } requestAnimation(intervalFunc); return{ clear:function(){stop=1} } } **Usage** var interval1,timeout1; window.onload=function(){ interval1=window.rInterval(function(){console.log('interval1')},2000); timeout1=window.rtimeOut(function(){console.log('timeout1')},5000); } /* to clear interval1.clear(); timeout1.clear(); */ **Demo** http://jsfiddle.net/wZ9Z6/ **QUESTIONS** 1. Normally I don't write functions inside functions, but in this case it's probably a good solution. What about memory leaks if I create hundreds of these time-based functions? 2. Is there a better solution to clear those functions? 3. For heavy animations and multiple intervals and timeouts, I was thinking to activate a single `requestAnimationFrame()` loop which would check for intervals and timeouts inside a previously stored array... (but I think there should be no difference if there is just one `requestAnimationframe` or multiple). So how do the browsers handle those multiple `requestAnimationframes()`? **Note:** if the code above does not work here is the original code. window.rInterval=function(a,b){var c=Date.now,d=window.requestAnimationFrame,e=c(),f,g=function(){c()-e<b||(e+=b,a());f||d(g)};d(g);return{clear:function(){f=1}}}//callback,delay window.rtimeOut=function(a,b){var c=Date.now,d=window.requestAnimationFrame,e=c(),f,g=function(){c()-e<b?f||d(g):a()};d(g);return{clear:function(){f=1}}}