cancellable timed loop

[Dave Elfers]

I am very new to python and programming in general and am trying to build a loop that can be cancelled when the timer ends or cancelled by a variable that will be set externally. I am testing with my code below and it doesn't want to cancel, like it never re-reads the variable to realize that it is no longer a 1. It seems like I am either really close or way off.

import threading
scalavar = 1
enable = 1
def disable():
    scalavar=0
    print 'timer stop'
timer = threading.Timer(5,disable)
timer.start()
while (enable == 1):
    if (enable == 1):
        print 'working'
        enable=scalavar
    elif (enable != 1):
        break
 
 
print 'Goodbye'

[bvdet]

Declare scalavar a global variable.

def disable():
    global scalavar
    scalavar=0
    print 'timer stop'

[Dave Elfers]

Thank you sir, that did the trick!