setTimeout causes return of 32 million instead of x,y coordinate

[Jupiter49]

I'm trying to move pictures around on the screen, with a slight delay
between the first picture and second picture (following onmousemove).
When I add the setTimeout function I must be doing it wrong because
the function that calculates the new coordinates for the picture
returns 32 million and change instead of the coordinate. This causes
the picture to not be able to appear on the display, obviously.

Here's the calling code (snipped for readability) that works without
setTimeout:

*************** *************** ***
function moveDucks(xPos, yPos) {

baby1.left = newDuckPos(yPos - 30, xPos - 30)
baby1.top = newDuckPos(xPos + 30, yPos + 30)
}
function newDuckPos(curr entPos, duckPos) {

newPos = Math.min(Math.m ax(currentPos, duckPos+3), duckPos+17)

return(document .getElementById ) ? newPos + "px" : newPos

}
*************** *************** **********

The above returns the correct "newPos" and everything is hunky dory.
Then I
try to use setTimeout:
*************** *************** **********
function moveDucks(xPos, yPos) {

baby1.left = setTimeout("new DuckPos("+yPos+ " - 30, "+xPos+" -
30)",500);
clearTimeout;

baby1.top = setTimeout("new DuckPos("+xPos+ " + 30, "+yPos+" +
30)",500);
clearTimeout;
}
*************** *************** ********

The above causes the newDuckPos to return as 32 million+ instead of
normal corrdinates. I am far too new to Javascript to have a clue. I
did follow the i/o enough to see that the the coordinates have valid
values when they reach newDuckPos (I output them to display to make
sure). Then newDuckPos calculates them and before it sends them back
I intercept them again. Again, the values look good.

Then newDuckPos returns them and they get munged.

Can anybody steer me in the right direction to figure this out?
Thanks.

[Paul LeBlanc]

Thanks Lasse, I finally got it to work. I did take your advice about
using values instead of var names (in certain places.) That eliminated
one class of problem. I also figured out how to call the seedPos
function recursively (with a setTimeout). That totally cleared up the
problem of the moveDucks events firing at once.

Here's what did the trick:
function seedPos(x,y) {

if (x < 710) {
x+=15; y-=15;

moveDucks(x , y);
timer=setTimeou t('seedPos('+ x +' ,'+ y ')',500);

}

}

Thanks again for all your help. It was a steep learning curve for this
VB.NET programmer that doesn't know Javascript from Java! ~P

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