Global Variables

Console

NativeScript’s global console variable lets you print values to your terminal for debugging. The simplest usage is passing a value to the console.log() function:

console.log("hello world");

The console object has several other methods, including dump(), trace(), assert() and more.

// Prints the state of a full object.
console.dump({ firstName: "Native", lastName: "Script"}); 

// Prints the current stack trace
console.trace();

// Asserts a boolean condition, and prints to the console if the assertion fails.
console.assert(1 === 1, "This won’t print as the condition is true");
console.assert(1 === 2, "This will print as the condition is false"); 

## Timer (JavaScript)
NativeScript's global `timer` variable lets you set timeouts and intervals for asynchronous delayed function calls. 

Importing

    var timer = require("timer")

Timeouts

    var callback = function(){
        console.log("I will be executed once after 500ms");
    }
    var timeoutId = timer.setTimeout(callback, 500);
    
    // clearing the timeout
    timer.clearTimeout(timeoutId);

Intervals

    var callback = function(){
        console.log("I will be executed every 500 ms")
    }
    var intervalId = timer.setInterval(callback, 500);
    
    // clearing the interval
    timer.clearInterval(intervalId);