A timer is a Gamma expression that is submitted for evaluation at specified time in the future. Timer related events are set up through the every and after functions which provide a relative time delay, and the at function which accepts an absolute time. These functions accept timing parameters and a block of code that will be evaluated when the timer expires. The code can be simply a function name, or can be an entire expression to be evaluated.

A timer will only be handled during a call to next_event, next_event_nb or flush_events. If a timer expires while another operation is being performed, the engine will evaluate the timer code at the next event handling instruction.

In the Gamma language, by default, timers are internally handled by using proxies. A proxy is non-blocking system message that does not require a reply. The Gamma engine can act on a proxy immediately, or delay a little while in order to finish what it is currently doing. It is this 'little while' that becomes the limit of the accuracy of the timers in a Gamma program when they are driven from proxies. You see, most Gamma programs are run through an event loop. The maximum time a proxy-based timer can be delayed is the execution time of the longest path of code attached to an event. Since this quantity is totally dependent on how your code is written and the speed of your CPU, it is difficult to put an exact number on the practical accuracy of Gamma proxy-based timers. The maximum resolution of the timers is equal to the OS tick size setting.