Help with timer

[Unnar Björnsson]

I have two computers, laptop and a PC I noticed when using Timer class to create animations that it moves faster on my laptop than on my PC. I did a little test and found out that I was right. Below is the code I used for this test.

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
 
public class Test
{
Timer timer;
long timeStart, timeEnd;
int n, averageTime;
long[] times;
 
public Test()
{
timer = new Timer(20, new TimeListener());
timer.start();
timeStart = System.currentTimeMillis();
n = 0;
times = new long[1000];
averageTime = 0;
}
    private class TimeListener implements ActionListener
    {
       public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent event)
       {
if(n < 1000)
{
timeEnd = System.currentTimeMillis();
times[n] = timeEnd-timeStart;
n++;
timeStart = System.currentTimeMillis();
System.out.print("\b\b\b\b" + n);
}
else
{
timer.stop();
for(int i=0; i<n; i++)
averageTime += times[i];
averageTime /= n;
System.out.println("\n" + averageTime);
}
 
}
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Test test = new Test();
for(;;) {}
}
}

Basicly it adds the actual delay time into an array, then it prints out the average time.

I found that on my laptop the average time is 20 - 25 ms, but on my PC it is 40 - 45. Why is that?

I did another test using Thread:

class Timer implements Runnable
{
long timeStart, timeEnd;
int n, averageTime;
long[] times;
 
public void run()
{
timeStart = System.currentTimeMillis();
n = 0;
times = new long[1000];
averageTime = 0;
 
try
{
while(n<1000)
{
timeEnd = System.currentTimeMillis();
times[n] = timeEnd-timeStart;
n++;
timeStart = System.currentTimeMillis();
System.out.print("\b\b\b\b" + n);
Thread.sleep(20);
}
for(int i=0; i<n; i++)
averageTime += times[i];
averageTime /= n;
System.out.println("\n" + averageTime);
 
}
catch(Exception e){}
}
}
public class Test2
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
 
Thread thread1 = new Thread(new Timer());
thread1.run();
}
}

This time the average time on both computers is around 20 ms, as it should be. Im in a dilemma should I change the code of my animation to use Thread instead of the Timer class, that would mean some extra work or try to figure out why the Timer class behaves like that.
[ September 15, 2005: Message edited by: Unnar Bj�rnsson ]