Quilt·
Lesson 5 of 7

TICK — advance time

TICK is the unit of now. Each TICK advances the clock by dt (default 0.1). The journal records the tick. Listeners can fire on tick. The substrate becomes a small world with its own time.

01The shape

TICK is the unit of now. Each TICK advances the clock by dt (default 0.1). The journal records the tick. Listeners can fire on tick. The substrate becomes a small world with its own time.

02Try it

lesson-5.js
Journal · cells: 0

03The law: monotonicity

Time only moves forward. The substrate's clock is monotonic — t never decreases. This is what makes TICK composable. Two substrates, ticking in parallel, can be merged by interleaving their ticks in time order. The result is a valid substrate.

04What you can build

Animations. Simulations. Schedulers. Anything that needs time. The substrate's clock is your clock. TICK is the message that says 'now' — and the journal records every now you've ever had.

05Next

We have the 5 opcodes. Now let's see why they form an algebra. Lesson 6: The 5 laws →