_ UPDATE: I don’t recommend this method anymore: it’s not a good idea to add functions to Object.prototype. Prefer adding this function to your object prototypes._
Here’s a useful method given by Douglas Crockford that can be added to Object.prototype :
Object.prototype.later = function( msec, method) {
var that = this;
var args = Array.prototype.slice.apply( arguments, [2] );
if( typeof method === 'string' ) {
method = that[method];
}
setTimeout(function() {
method.apply(that, args);
}, msec);
return that;
};
Then, you can call it on any object, the function will be called with the object scope:
myObject.later(1000, "methodName", arg1, arg2, .... ); // call myObject.methodName(arg1, arg2) in 1 second