This verb takes it's name from the “idle” handler in a compiled applescript. It can be used to re-execute a global script very quickly or continually without having to clog up the schedule events window. Scheduled events only have a granularity of 1 second anyway, but if you wanted something to run faster than that you'd need to use this. This verb can be called from anywhere, but can only reference a global script. This is considered an advanced scripting topic and you should use the “execute script” verb whenever possible as opposed to this.

start idler (text, name of a global script)

• Upon the call to start idler the global script will execute. It must then return a number of milliseconds before it will be run again. If 0 is returned the script will stop being called.
• Setting a small number here or doing a lot of work inside a rapidly executing script could bring other performance to a halt.
• a script can only have one idler timer, so it doesn't hurt to call start idler more than once. It will cause the script to run again upon the call, but will not leave 2 timers active for the script.
• I use this to update remote display clock displays via the DIY interface and returning “1000” to make the script run and update the clock every second. Since no script executed log lines are shown when the timer re-runs the script the log is not spammed with an entry even second like it would be if I were doing this via the execute script “clock” in 1 command.
• to stop the idler the script must return 0, there is no verb to stop the idler externally.